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No. 1 




PUBLICATIONS 



OF THE 



Brookline Historical Society 



JEREMY QRIDLEY 



PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY 
OCTOBER 22, 1902 



PUBLICATIONS 



OF THE 



Brookline Historical Society 



JEREMY GR1DLEY 



PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, OCTOBER 22, igo2 



BY 



R. G. F. CANDAGE 




BROOKLINE, MASS.: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 

MCM III 



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fiOtfetotU anir dymrcbill ftess 

BOSTON 



THE GRIDLEY HOUSE, BROOKLINE, 



JEREMY GRIDLEY 



Houses as well as towns have histories, and some houses 
have exceedingly interesting histories, and by their study 
much can be learned of what transpired in and about them 
in regard to the character and lives of their owners and occu- 
pants, which give interest to the place where they have been 
located. The Jeremy Gridley house, so called, of Brookline, 
is one old house with a history, and is the subject of this 
paper. 

This house was gambrel roofed, built in 1740, on the 
site of another house destroyed by fire the same year, oppo- 
site the present First Parish meeting-house, by Nathaniel 
Gardner, of Brookline, who was a merchant, with his place of 
business in Boston. The house existed from that date to 
1886, a period of a hundred and forty-six years, during which 
the country passed through the most interesting stages of its 
development. 

Mr. Gardner belonged to the family of that name, well 
known in the earlier history of the town, whose kinsman, 
Isaac Gardner, was killed at the battle of Lexington. He 
occupied the house until his death, some five or six years after 
its erection. His " heirs conveyed the Mansion House, Barn 
and Smith's shop with piece of land containing 5 acres more 
or less, bounded Westerly and Southwesterly on County 



Road, Northeasterly on land of Benjamin Gardner, South- 
easterly on land of Rev. Jos. Allen in part, and in part by 
meeting house on Town land; In consideration of ^1000 in 
Bills of Credit, to Joseph and Moses White, September 19, 
1746." The consideration included land not contained in 
the five acres mentioned. Deacon Benjamin White, of the 
First Parish church, was the occupant of the house during 
this ownership according to Miss Woods' statement in " His- 
torical Sketches of Brookline." 

The property next passed into the hands and occupancy 
of Jeremy Gridley, Esq., but his deed is not found in the 
Suffolk Registry, probably was never recorded. He came 
to Brookline from Boston prior to 1755, but the precise date 
is not known. He was born in Boston March 10, 1701, 
graduated from Harvard College in 1725, studied law and 
was admitted to the bar, where he won the distinction of 
being called " The Father of the Boston Bar." He held 
many town and public offices during his residence in the 
town, an account of which is given elsewhere. He died Sep- 
tember 10, 1767. 

His brother, Richard Gridley, was administrator of his 
estate, which on December 29, 1768, he deeded to Walter 
Logan, of Roxbury, as appears by papers in Suffolk Probate 
Registry, but not found on the Registry of Deeds, and prob- 
ably was never recorded. 

The next owner and occupant was Henry Hulton, Esq., 
one of the five Royal Commissioners of Customs appointed 
in 1767 by the British Government for the collection of the 
revenue at Boston. He arrived in this country from England 
in December, 1767, and took up his residence at the Gridley 
house in Brookline. 

He was an ostentatious person, fond of pomp and show, 
and often entertained parties of British officers at his house, 



5 

who rode through the town, to and from Boston, attired in 
uniforms, with nodding plumes and gay trappings. 

It was a time of unrest in the public mind, and those 
scenes in connection with Hulton, who was looked upon by 
the quiet, sober people of the town as a disturber of their 
peace and a hated collector of " unjust taxes," further in- 
flamed the smothered fire within, until endurance by them 
had lost its virtue, and the result was that the windows of 
his house were smashed and he fled to Boston. But even 
that town became too warm for the Royal Commissioners, 
who for further security retired to the Castle, and later 
Hulton returned to England, to be heard of no more as a 
Royal Commissioner in this country. 

His Brookline property was confiscated and sold under an 
Act of the General Court, in which he and others similarly 
situated were designated " conspirators and absentees." The 
deed recorded in the Suffolk Registry conveying the prop- 
erty under that Act bears date of May 11, 1781, and is as 
follows : 

" Know all men by these presence 

" Whereas by an act of the General Court of the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts in the Year of Our Lord One thou- 
sand Seven hundred and Eighty One ' An Act to provide for 
the payment of debts due from the Conspirators and Ab- 
sentees and for the recovery of Debts due to them ' and by 
another Act in addition to said Act We Richard Craunch 
of Braintree Samuel Henshaw of Milton and Samuel Barrett 
of Boston are in the County of Suffolk Esqrs are authorized 
and empowered to Sell the Estate of said Conspirators and 
Absentees lying in the County of Suffolk and to give good 
and sufficient deeds in fee to the purchaser in the Name and 
behalf of the Commonwealth. 

" Now know Ye that we, the said Richard Craunch, Samuel 
Henshaw and Samuel Barrett by virtue of the power and 



authority to us given in said Act and by these presence Do 
Sell, Convey and Confirm unto David Cook of Roxbury in 
the County of Suffolk Gent" his Heirs and Assigns forever 
all the real estate of Henry Hulton late of Brookline in the 
County of Suffolk Esqr. now conspirator for the sum of 
1220^ in gold and silver Value to us in hand paid before 
the delivery hereof by the said David Cook which sum was 
the most it would fetch and the Estate in the town of Brook- 
line is bounded as follows : — 

" One piece of land containing about 5 acres more or less 
bounded Southerly and Westerly on the County road North- 
erly and Northeasterly on land in possession now or late of 
Elisha Gardner Easterly and Northeasterly on Town land by 
the meeting house together with the dwelling house barn 
and outhouses. Also other land in Brookline, etc." 

Prior to the sale Rev. Joseph Jackson, of the First Parish 
Church, occupied the house for four or five years, as appears 
from a petition to the General Court on file in the archives 
at the State House, also Diary of Thomas Hutchinson. 

Whether David Cook ever occupied the premises himself 
there is no evidence to show, and probably he did not. 

On July 29, 1785, David Cook deeded the property to 
John Lucas, of Boston, Gentleman, for the " consideration 
of £$97 s xo Lawful money." 

John Lucas held the property for nearly five years. He 
gave four hundred dollars towards furnishing the meeting- 
house built in 1806, apparently after he had left the town, 
which stamps him a generous man. Part of the money 
given by him was spent in the purchase of a clock, which 
remained in the meeting-house until it was demolished, and 
then was removed to the Town Hall, and from that to the 
present Town Hall in 1873. Some seven or eight years 
ago, by vote of the town, it was restored to the custody of 
the First Parish, and now, although nearly a century old, 



continues to mark time with regularity in the new meeting- 
house, its rightful place and home. 

John Lucas and his wife Hannah conveyed their property 
in Brookline to William Knight and his wife Anna, March 
17, 1790, for .£800, and they by deed of even date conveyed 
it to William Hyslop, of Brookline, " in consideration of 5 
shillings." 

William Hyslop was a wealthy man, who owned and re- 
sided on the Boylston estate, afterwards the property of 
Henry Lee, Esq., father of our late townsman, Henry Lee, 
Esq. 

Mr. Hyslop donated to the town the triangular lot of land 
in the fork of the roads west of the First Parish meeting- 
house, in 1793, upon which was erected the brick school- 
house. His estate included land on Warren street later 
owned by the Murdocks, but now included in the Sargent 
estate. 

William Hyslop so far as appears never lived in the old 
house, but his son of the same name did. In 1796 William 
Hyslop, Sr., died, and on February 14, 1 797, his heirs, Increase 
Sumner, of Roxbury, and his wife Elizabeth, " as heirs of 
their father William Hyslop," deeded the property to David 
Hyslop, of Brookline, " the five acre lot with buildings 
thereon " and other lands in Brookline, " in consideration 
of $10,000." 

Increase Sumner was governor of Massachusetts, 1797 to 
1799, dying in office. His wife was daughter of William and 
Mehitable Hyslop, of Brookline ; his mother was Sarah, 
daughter of Robert Sharp, of Brookline ; his sister, Sarah 
Sumner, married Ebenezer Davis, of Brookline, whose son, 
Thomas Aspinwall Davis, built the house in the centre of 
Linden place, and who was mayor of Boston at the time of 
his death in 1845. 



David Hyslop, who bought the property of Governor 
Sumner, was a brother of Mrs. Sumner, and it was he who 
gave the baptismal font, costing forty dollars, to the First 
Parish Church. 

April 15, 1800, David Hyslop sold and conveyed the old 
house, outbuildings, and five-acre lot to Mr. John Carnes, 
of Boston, " in consideration of $4,066.67." 

Mr. Carnes owned the hill in rear of the present First 
Parish meeting-house, and of him the town and parish 
bought the lot in 1805 upon which the meeting-house was 
built in 1806. 

He owned " the homestead lot and buildings thereon," 
some eight years, and presumably occupied them, although 
no incidents worth recording have been found in connection 
therewith. 

On March 23, 1808, he deeded them to Elizabeth Par- 
tridge of Boston, widow, in consideration of $6,000, he being 
described in that instrument as "John Carnes of Boston, 
Gentleman." 

Mrs. Elizabeth Partridge's deed describes the premises as 
follows : 

" A parcel of land and messuage in Brookline bounded 
by a stone wall, beginning at a corner near where the meet- 
ing house formerly stood, thence running Westerly and 
Northwesterly by the County road to land of John Goddard 
and Sons to the Worcester Turnpike road, Easterly on said 
Turnpike Road to land of Thomas Walley, thence Easterly 
and Southeasterly by said Walley's land to the Town land, 
and thence Southerly by said Town land to the bounds first 
mentioned, together with the dwelling house and out houses 
thereon standing. Containing about 8 acres more or less." 

The widow Partridge was said to be wealthy, but she lived 
a quiet, unostentatious life, so far as appears, in the old 



house, and died under its roof June 6, 1814, aged 86, six 
years after her purchase of it. 

She left a will naming her devisees "William Gooch and 
Deborah his wife, Stephen Bean and Susanna his wife of 
Boston, Thomas T. Hubbard and Joseph Hubbard by Peter 
Brooks their guardian," who conveyed the property to 
Thomas W. Sumner and Elizabeth his wife, of Boston, on 
April 1, 1816, for the " consideration of $1.00." " All right, 
title, and interest in and to a parcel of land in Brookline, 
which was conveyed to Elizabeth Partridge by John Carnes 
of Boston, Gentleman, by his deed of March 23, 1808, and 
recorded in Norfolk Registry, Lib. 29, Fol. 246. Reference 
is made to said deed for description of said premises." 

Mr. Sumner came to Brookline from Boston, where he 
resided on Chambers street, and his occupation having been 
a house carpenter, in these days he would probably be called 
a builder and contractor. He had been a selectman of 
Boston, had represented that town in the General Court for 
seven years, 1805-1811, and was highly respected. 

He was of a generous and kindly nature, and he won the 
friendship and regard of the school children of the brick 
school-house by giving fruit from his orchard and by assign- 
ing the fruit of several trees to their especial use. 

This affable gentleman lived in the old house for thirty- 
odd years, and died under its roof May 29, 1849, aged eighty 
years, regretted by many persons, his wife having preceded 
him to her final rest. 

After Mr. Sumner's death a plan of the land was made by 
T. & J. Doane, dated May 6, 1850, and it was divided into 
lots, and his heirs, " Emily P. Sumner, of Boston, Eliza P. 
Sumner, William H. Allen, and Caroline H. Allen, ax. William, 
of New Bedford, and Alice E. Sumner, of Walpole, on July 9, 



10 



1850, conveyed a part of the same to James T. Fisher, of 
Boston, in consideration of $6,112.51." 

The deed described the property transferred as follows : 

" 6/7 of a parcel of land in Brookline and the mansion 
house thereon, being lots numbered 9 and 10 on T. & J. 
Doane's plan dated May 6, 1850. Bounded south by Walnut 
street 119.57 feet; southwest by the same on a curve, with 
a radius of 32 feet, 33 feet; southwest again on said street 
256.92 feet; north by lot 11 said plan 81.73 feet; north- 
west by the same 121. 15 feet; northeast by land of Hutchins 
64.16 feet; and east by lots 6, 7 and 8, 370.7 feet; contain- 
ing by estimation 61,565 feet. The mansion house of the 
late Thomas W. Sumner stands on lot 10." 

On June 18, 185 1, James T. Fisher, of Boston, deeded to 
Nathaniel G. Chapin, of Brookline, " in consideration of 
$7,750, a parcel of land in Brookline with buildings thereon. 
Being lots 9 and 10 and part of 1 1 on T. & J. Doane's plan 
of the Sumner estate, containing by estimation 71,429 square 
feet. Being the same premises conveyed to me by deeds 
recorded with Norfolk Deeds, Lib. 195, fol. 141, and Lib. 
197, fol. 74." 

Mr. Chapin was a merchant of Boston and a well-known 
resident of Brookline for many years. He was a selectman 
of Brookline for the years 1861 and 1862, trustee of the 
cemetery for 1875 and 1876, and an auditor for 1877 an ^ 
1878. 

He occupied the old mansion until 1876, when he con- 
veyed the property to Henry G. Rice and Charles L. Thayer, 
trustees, and they in consideration of $4,050, on June 25, 
1877, deeded it to Moses Williams, Jr. Mr. Williams' deed 
included land not of Mr. Chapin's grant, the whole contain- 
ing 130,997 square feet by estimation, and buildings. 

Mr. Williams graduated from the Brookline High School, 



II 



Harvard University, Harvard Law School, and was admitted 
to the bar, where he has won distinction. 

He represented the town in the General Court for the 
years 1873, 1874, and 1875 ; was a selectman for the year 
1878, but declined a re-election; has been, with his brother 
Charles A. Williams, town counsel for twenty years or more, 
and is now a trustee of the Public Library and a member of 
this Society. 

He owned and occupied the old mansion house until 1886, 
when he took it down and erected upon its site the fine 
modern house now standing, and which he owned and occu- 
pied until 1899, when he sold it to its present owner, Mrs. 
Frances E. Hunt, wife of William D. Hunt, Esq. 

For nearly a hundred and fifty years the old house was a 
landmark in the town. If its walls could have given a recital 
of events which transpired within them much that is now lost 
would have been added to the history of our town concerning 
those who were its owners and occupants. Of that long list 
all but one have passed away, and we simply catch glimpses of 
their lives and characters through this fragmentary and im- 
perfect account of their connection with " an old house with 
an history." 

JEREMIAH GRIDLEY. 

There came to Massachusetts, probably from Essex 
County, England, about 1630, three brothers, Richard, 
Samuel, and Thomas Gridley. Samuel died shortly after 
their arrival, Thomas settled at Hartford, Conn., where he 
died, leaving a numerous posterity. 

Richard, the elder brother, settled in Boston, where he was 
made a freeman in 1634. "In 1656 Richard Gridley with 
other citizens of ye Towne of Boston signed a subscription 
paper towards the Building of a town house." Gridley's sub- 



12 

scription being "£2, the same as Gov. Jo. Endicott." That was 
a wooden house built on the site of the present Old State 
House destroyed by fire. 

He was a mason by trade and owned a house and lot, "the 
eastern boundary of which was washed by the waters of the 
bay." 

He was appointed a surveyor in 1647, and was a member 
of the Honorable Artillery Company. He died in the fall of 
1674, will probated in Boston. 

His wife's name was Grace, who bore him a son, Joseph, 
probably previous to arrival in this country, and also a 
daughter, Mary, April 10, 1631, and thereafter down to 1642 
four other daughters and two sons, eight in all. The names 
of the sons were Believe and Tremble, old-style Puritan 
names. 

Believe married Anne, and they had four daughters born 
1664 to 1672, namely, Mary, Bethiah, Susanna, and Hannah, 
no sons being mentioned in the Boston records. 

On August 16, 1684, Richard Gridley, son of Richard and 
Abigail, was born, and then follow Joseph. Abigail, Abigail, 
2d, and Lydia, the latter born December 21, 1691. 

On February 27, 1694, Richard Gridley married Hannah 
Dawes, whose children were John, born November 23, 1694, 
and Samuel, born January 5, 1696. 

Hannah Gridley died January 15, 1696, and we infer she 
was wife of Richard, and mother of John and Samuel, and 
that Richard later married Rebecca, the mother of Jeremiah, 
born March 10, 1701 ; Isaac, June 28, 1703; Rebecca, 
November 2, 1708; and Richard, January 3, 1710. 

Jeremiah Gridley was descended from Richard the immi- 
grant and Grace his wife, Joseph and Lydia Flood, Captain 
Richard and Rebecca. Jeremiah married — no date — Abi- 
gail Lewis, daughter of Hon. Ezekiel Lewis, born June 10, 



13 

1706, and to them were born Abigail, August 8, 1 73 1 ; Sarah, 
April 4, 1736; and Rebecca, April 25, 1741, died in 1816. 

Abigail married first, Joseph Dudley ; second, John Gray on 
August 16, 1768; Sarah married Moses Scott, and removed 
to Yarmouth, N.S. ; and Rebecca married Edward Bridge, 
of Roxbury, and her descendants are now living in Boston 
and Brookline. Hon. Ezekiel Lewis was a prominent citizen 
of Boston, had been a school teacher, a selectman, repre- 
sentative to the General Court, councillor, and merchant. 
He was twice married, first to Mary Breaden, by Rev. Samuel 
Willard, May 18, 1702, by whom he had a daughter Mary, 
born January 21, 1703. 

He married second, Abigail Kilcup, widow of Roger Kil- 
cup, October 11, 1704, Rev. Samuel Willard officiating. 

By the latter marriage there were six children, viz. : Abi- 
gail, born June 2, 1706; William, November 28, 1707; Sarah, 
May 10, 1710; Eliza, August 12, 1712; Hannah, September 
14, 1 714; and Ezekiel, April 17, 1 7 1 7. After Gridley's death 
the Masonic Grand Lodge, of which he had been Grand 
Master, sent a committee, of whom James Otis was one, to 
confer with " Mrs. Dudley, Gridley's eldest daughter, and 
Mr. Ezekiel Lewis, his brother-in-law," in regard to the 
funeral. 

Isaac Gridley married Sarah Porter, January 28, 1728, 
whose children were Benjamin, born January 28, 1732, and 
Pollard, born March 23, 1735. 

Rebecca Gridley, the sister, married Edward Cabot, July 

II, 1732. 

Richard Gridley married Hannah Deming, February 25, 
1730, and their children were Richard, born July 12, 1 73 1 ; 
Hannah, June 1, 1732; Samuel, June 14, 1734; Joseph, 
November 5, 1736; Jane, July 7, 1738; Scarborough, Octo- 
ber 9, 1739. 



14 

Richard Gridley, brother of Jeremiah and Isaac, was a 
famed engineer and artillerist of Colonial and Revolutionary 
times. 

He planned the fortifications at Governor's Island and the 
modern works at Castle Island in the harbor, fortifications at 
Gloucester, the Kennebec, and at Halifax. He was at Louis- 
burg with Pepperell, and was entrusted by him with the plan 
for the reduction of those works, which were surrendered in 

1745- 

He was made engineer of the army in 1755 and was with 

General Winslow at Crown Point in 1756, and planned the 

fortifications around Lake George ; he was with Wolfe on 

the Plains of Abraham aiding in the capture of Quebec in 

1759- 

He laid out the defences at Bunker Hill the night before 
the battle of June 17, 1775, was wounded in the foot at that 
battle, and narrowly escaped capture. 

He aided in the plan and construction of the fortifications 
around Boston and at Dorchester Heights, which caused the 
British forces to evacuate the town on March 17, 1776. 

He was commissioned major-general of the army, and 
made commander of the artillery by the Provincial Con- 
gress, September 20, 1775, but when his commission expired 
the following December, he was superseded by Gen. Henry 
Knox, " owing to age and infirmities," as a biographer put 
it. But notwithstanding " age and infirmities," he continued 
to serve his country with patriotic zeal and fervor until 1781, 
when he retired to his country home at Canton, Mass., where 
he died June 20, 1796, aged 86 years 5 months and 17 
days. 

But the intolerance of the age was such that this battle- 
scarred veteran of three wars was not allowed to be buried 
in the public burying-ground, because he had been a convert 



15 

to the teachings of Rev. John Murray on universal salvation, 
and his body was buried on what had been his own private 
grounds. 

A few years since, the Grand Army Post at Canton raised 
funds and erected a monument to Gen. Richard Gridley, the 
friend of Washington, Warren, Revere, and other Revolu- 
tionary patriots, which was appropriately inscribed to his 
memory and publicly dedicated. 

Jeremiah Gridley, commonly called Jeremy, the older 
brother, graduated from Harvard College in 1725. For 
some years thereafter he was usher in a Boston grammar 
school ; studied theology and occasionally preached. He 
studied law and was admitted to the bar, but while waiting 
for a clientage, started a weekly paper called the " Re- 
hearsal," the first number of which made its appearance 
September 27, 1 73 1 . 

As editor of the " Rehearsal" his writings were praised for 
clearness of expression and for their literary style. A critic 
said, " He gave proof that he was one of the most elegant 
and classical writers of his time." 

But journalism was not destined to be his lifework, and 
after a year's trial he severed his connection with the " Re- 
hearsal " to devote his time and energy to the practice of the 
law. He wrote thereafter occasionally for the press, as a 
pastime, or upon topics of practical interest. 

At the bar he won a distinguished position, and was held 
in high esteem by his associates, who called him " Father of 
the Boston Bar." It is said that his influence, aided by that 
of Edmund Trowbridge, gave the first impetus to profound 
legal learning and high professional spirit in Massachusetts. 

" Pursue the study of law," said he, " rather than its gain. 
Pursue its gain enough to keep out of the briers, but give 
main attention to its study." And his life attests to the fact 



i6 



that he carried out in practice what he taught others. He 
made a study of the law, and attained fame, but was indiffer- 
ent to the acquisition of wealth, which his abilities would have 
given him power to accumulate. But he was content with 
moderate fees from those able to pay, and often served the 
poor without fee. As a consequence he died leaving an in- 
cumbered and insolvent estate. His fondness for official 
position was not for its emolument, but that without selfish- 
ness he might be better able to serve the public. That 
spirit led him to become a Freemason, and also a member 
of the Marine Society, both being charitable organizations. 

Gridley's office became a resort for students, and some of 
the most distinguished lawyers of Massachusetts received 
their professional education under his instruction, among 
whom were Benjamin Prat, afterwards chief justice of New 
York, Oxenbridge Thatcher, William Cushing, and James 
Otis. Samuel Quincy and John Adams were examined by 
him and admitted to the bar on his motion. 

Adams in his Diary notes the event as follows : " When 
the day for admission came Gridley rose up and bowed to 
his right hand and said, ' Mr. Quincy,' when Quincy rose up : 
then he turned to Mr. Adams, and he walked out. Mr. 
Gridley made a little speech in commendation of the accom- 
plishments of the two young men ; Mr. Prat followed with a 
few words ; the oath was administered, the neophytes shook 
hands with the members of the Bar, received their congratu- 
lations, and invited them over to Stone's to drink some punch, 
where most of us resorted, and had a very cheerful chat." 

John Adams entertained a high opinion of Gridley's ability, 
valued his friendship, and called him his master in the law. 
Gridley entertained like sentiments for Adams and Otis, and 
one day jokingly made the remark to his associates that he 
" had raised up two young eagles who would one day pick 



17 

his eyes out." The allusion was understood to be to Adams 
and Otis. 

Gridley was a representative to the General Court for the 
years 1755, 1756, and 1757, in which he was an able debater 
and an influential member, whose known ability and integrity 
made him the agent in the performance of beneficial legisla- 
tion for the advancement of knowledge, the comfort, and 
prosperity of the Province. 

It is stated in Washburne's " Judicial History of Massa- 
chusetts " that he was attorney general for the year 1742, 
but the Council records of the Province do not confirm it. 
Probably he was assistant, and he was attorney general for 
1767, the year of his death. 

That authority also states that " as a representative he 
was ranked with the Whig party of that day, but his connec- 
tion with the famous ' Writs of Assistance ' lost him the con- 
fidence of his political friends." 

In our investigation of the records of that period we fail 
to find proper evidence of such a fact — certainly the rec- 
ords of Brookline do not confirm it, but do show that he 
was held in that town in the highest esteem to the date of his 
death. 

Gridley's manner in addressing courts and juries was said 
to be lofty and his opinions were pronounced with an air of 
authority and in the consciousness of his own power. But 
he never condescended to instruct a client in the law, nor to 
point out the course he should pursue in a cause. The fol- 
lowing anecdote of him illustrates that point: 

About 1760 a Mr. Lombard, a minister of education at 
Gorham, Me., had a disagreement with the people of his 
parish, and it was agreed that the connection should be 
dissolved. The parsonage and land belonging to it under 
cultivation, were valuable. Lombard had given a bond for 



three thousand pounds to two deacons, Morton and Phinney, 
that upon the settlement of another .minister he would give 
up the parsonage. 

An illiterate person was invited to preach as a candidate 
for settlement, and to the surprise of Lombard and others 
he received and accepted the call to become the minister. 
The neighboring churches and ministers refused to assist in 
his ordination, whereupon the church ordained him by laying 
on of hands of Morton and Phinney, according to the Cam- 
bridge platform, and then brought suit in the Falmouth (now 
Portland) Court of Common Pleas against Lombard to com- 
pel him to give up the parsonage. 

The case was argued by counsel, and Lombard was allowed 
to show that the man ordained was not the minister meant, 
or intended by the bond given, and he read from a Greek 
Testament the qualifications of a minister, the original of 
which he translated, but the jury found for the plaintiff. 

Lombard appealed to the Supreme Court at York and em- 
ployed Gridley as his counsel. The jury again found for the 
plaintiff. Gridley then moved in arrest of judgment, that 
there was no issue joined, which being apparent judgment 
was arrested on a repleader and the case was continued to 
the next term of the court, when Gridley introduced a plea in 
bar, and recited the grant of the township from the General 
Court, and the erection of the parsonage for the use of " a 
pious, learned, orthodox minister," etc., and then averred 
that the town had not settled another " pious, learned, ortho- 
dox minister." 

The counsel for the plaintiff replied that they had settled 
another pious, orthodox minister, omitting " learned," as he 
said he was unwilling to put that in issue, and put themselves 
on the country. 

Gridley demurred for a departure in the replication, to 



19 

which there was a joinder in demurrer. A short argument 
followed, the replication was determined to be insufficient, 
and the court gave judgment in favor of Lombard. 

He was out of the court-room at the time, but hastened 
back on being informed he had won his case, and asked Grid- 
ley how it was done. 

Gridley answered him, " How it was done, sir, you can 
never know until you get to heaven." 

In the year 1761 Charles Paxton, an officer of the 
customs at Boston, applied to the Superior Court to grant 
him " Writs of Assistance," so called, in his search for 
smuggled goods. An ordinary " Writ of Assistance " was a 
search-warrant, empowering an officer to whom it was 
issued to enter by force, when necessary, any building to 
search for contraband goods supposed to be stored or hidden 
therein. 

The Writs of Assistance asked were special search-war- 
rants made out in blank, in which the officer serving them 
might fill in names at his discretion of persons and descrip- 
tions of buildings and goods, and in the hands of unscrupu- 
lous partisans of the government would have become instru- 
ments of tyranny to which the people would not tamely 
submit. The case was tried in the Council Chamber of the 
Old State House before five judges of the Superior Court, 
Chief Justice Hutchinson presiding. 

Gridley, who had been appointed government counsel for 
the purpose, argued in favor of granting the writs, in a 
speech of great power, citing the statutes of Charles II. and 
William III. unrepealed, that they were legal unless the 
authority of Parliament to make laws for the colonies was to 
be denied. His plea was made in a calm and dignified 
manner, and his conclusions have been shared by able 
jurists of that and of later times. 



20 

Oxenbridge Thatcher followed him in opposition, and took 
the ground that issuance of the writs would be an unwar- 
rantable stretch of Parliamentary authority applied to the 
colonies. James Otis argued on the same line in a speech 
of five hours' length, said to have been the greatest speech of 
modern times. He went beyond the legality of the question 
at issue, and took up the question of constitutional relations 
between the colonies and the mother country. His presen- 
tation was accompanied by masterly oratory which swayed 
his hearers and inflamed their minds with patriotic ardor, but 
not a word of the speech has been handed down to us in 
print. 

John Adams, who was present, afterwards said of it " that 
on that day the child Independence was born." 

Otis received an ovation from the people whose liberties 
and rights he had so ably and earnestly championed, in 
which, it has been said, Gridley, his teacher in the law, un- 
demonstratively, but none the less true and heartfelt, joined. 

The court withheld its decision until advice was received 
from the law officers of the crown in London, when at the 
next term it was ordered to grant the writs. 

The customs officers, thus armed, broke into warehouses 
and seized goods said to have been smuggled, and in that 
manner confiscated private property valued at many 
thousands of pounds. Those acts, with others that followed, 
led to the war of the Revolution and the final separation of 
the colonies from British rule. 

Gridley, for arguing in favor of those writs, has been, we 
think unjustly, called a Tory and blamed for his calm and 
dignified presentation of the legal side of the case. No good 
reason has been shown, however, why he did not do so as a 
jurist of high legal attainments and well-known integrity, 
without prejudice to his country or loss of honor to himself. 



21 



Later, when the Stamp Act had been passed, and in con- 
sequence of the disturbed state of the people, the courts were 
closed, the people of Boston in town meeting voted that 
Jeremiah Gridley, James Otis, and John Adams be applied to 
as counsel for the town to present a petition to His Excel- 
lency the Governor and the Council, praying " that the courts 
of law in this province be opened." 

That would not have been done if Gridley had been a hated 
Tory, or had lost the confidence of the people. The gentle- 
men were privately and politely heard by the governor and 
Council, and civilly bowed out of their presence without 
having accomplished the object sought. 

They continued, however, counsel for the town, at a time 
when to render legal service to patriots was not only a matter 
of professional difficulty, but of political and possible per- 
sonal danger. 

Had Gridley lived to see the Revolution inaugurated, we 
have no doubt but what, instead of siding with the Tories, his 
lot would have been cast with that of his brothers and 
nephews and with patriotic ardor for the rights of the coun- 
try of his birth which his life had honored. 

JEREMY GRIDLEY AND THE BOSTON MARINE 

SOCIETY. 

Gridley, in order to advance the interests of his country, 
and to give facility to trade, made a study of maritime law, 
and advised the merchants and shipmasters to insure their 
merchandise and ships at home instead of in England. To 
assist them he became interested in the Fellowship Club, 
composed of shipmasters, organized in June, 1742, as a char- 
itable body, and which was chartered February 2, 1754, as 
the Marine Society at Boston in New England. 



22 

He was then at the height of his fame as a lawyer, when 
his opinions bore the weight of authority, and he drew the 
draft of the Society's charter, as we learn by the following 
extracts from the records : 

"At a meeting of the Society held December 5, 1752, 
Voted That the Bill Exhibited by Jeremiah Gridley Esqr. 
this Evening and filed be presented to the General Court 
for the Society's Incorporation be accepted by the Society 
and preferred accordingly to the General Court for the ob- 
taining a charter from this government." 

" On February 2, 1754 the Charter was granted," and at 
a meeting of the Society held February 5, 1754, it was read 
to the members present when it was " Voted That Jeremiah 
Gridley, Esqr. be presented with the freedom of the Society 
for his Good Offices to the Society." 

From that date he was recorded on the Society's books as 
a member. At that same meeting Jeremiah Gridley, Esq., 
and four others were appointed a committee " To Devise a 
Seal for the Society and make a Report to ye Society ye 
next Tuesday Ensuing." 

The record of the next meeting was on February 26, 1754, 
when it was "Voted That the draft of the Laws," evidently 
the By-laws, " presented this day by Jeremiah Gridley Esqr. 
be accepted." At that meeting it was also " Voted, That 
The Silver Seal cut by Mr. Nathaniel Hurd and now pre- 
sented to the Society by the Committee for that purpose, 
representing a Ship arriving at the light House from a Storm 
and the Sun breaking through the Clouds with the Inscrip- 
tion Marine Society at Boston in New England A.D. 1754 
be the Seal of this Society." And such has been the seal 
from that date to the present. 

At a meeting of the Society held January 1, 1765, "Voted 
That A Craige J Prince W D Cheever J Homer be a Commit- 



23 

tee to wait on Jeremiah Gridley Esqr to present a petition 
to the Gen Court to obtain Liberty to erect a Light House 
on Nantuckett." 

This is the last record concerning Gridley's connection 
with the Society, but enough is shown to prove his interest 
in and influence with its members to deserve the vote pre- 
senting him " with the freedom of the Society for his Good 
Offices to the Society." 

But he was never its president, as has been stated else- 
where, nor could he have been, as he had not been a ship- 
master, as the laws and usages of the Society require to 
make one eligible for that office. 

A score or more of the members of the Marine Society 
were also Masons. The meetings of the Society were often 
held at the places where the Grand Lodge met, but on dif- 
ferent dates as a matter of course. Their aims and objects 
in a certain sense were charitable and the same spirit of fra- 
ternity prevailed among the members of both Societies. 



JEREMY GRIDLEY AS A RESIDENT OF 
BROOKLINE. 

The exact date in which Jeremy Gridley took up his 
residence in Brookline is not known, but it was some time 
prior to May 19, 1755, as on that date "At a Meeting of 
the Inhabitants Legally called The Selectmen Moderating 
Voted To Send a Representative to ye Great & General 
Court this year Voted Jeremiah Gridley, Esqr. Chosen 
Representative." And for the years 1756 and 1758 "Voted 
Jeremiah Gridley Esqr. Chosen Representative." 

At a meeting of the town held May 22, 1758, "Voted not 
to Send a Representative This Year Voted That Jeremiah 



24 

Gridley Esqr Henry Sewall Esqr Adjoin the Com'tee yt hath 
ye Care of the Estate of Edward Devotion Deceased." 

At the town meeting held March 5, 1759, "Voted 
Jeremy Gridley Esqr Chosen Moderator" as he had been at 
two previous meetings, and " Voted Jeremiah Gridley Esqr 
Surveyor of highways for the Middle Part Sworn." Gridley 
was chosen moderator at the meeting of the town held " May 
ye 24th 1759," when it was "Voted that yt Jeremy Gridley 
Esqr & the Select Men be a Com'ty to Inform the Rev'd Mr. 
Potter of Votes Pas'd Relative to him " (which were in 
regard to his salary and settlement). 

"Jeremy Gridley Esqr Chosen Moderator " at the meetings 
"June ye 13th 1759," and on " Octr ye 17 1759; " also on 
"December ye 19th 1759." The latter meeting was "Ad- 
journed to Monday the 24th Instant at two of ye clock in ye 
afternoon." At the " Adjourned meeting at ye two of the 
Clock in ye afternoon P.M. Voted Jeremy Gridley Henry 
Sewall Esqrs Capt Craft, Deacon White, Deacon Davis, & 
Isaac Gardner be a Commity to wait on Mr. Joseph Jackson 
and acquaint him with these Votes." 

The votes were in regard to his salary and settlement, 
" as ye Gospel Minister in this Town Provided he accepts 
the choice and be Ordained Accordingly." That meeting 
appears to have been held to consider the subject of the 
settlement of Rev. Joseph Jackson. 

Here follows in the town records a report of a committee's 
transaction in the year 1756, regarding the disposition of 
" spaces or spots " in the meeting-house : 

" Accordingly. We have Disposed of the spaces or spots 
on the Middle Side Next the Middle Ally to Jer Gridley 
Esqr He Paying to the Town Five Pounds Six Shillings & 
Eight p" — and other " spaces or spots " were disposed of 
to the other persons named in said report with prices paid 



25 

for same. Gridley at that time was a communicant of 
Trinity Church, Boston. 

At the March meeting held in 1760, "Jeremy Gridley 
Esqr moderator Voted To Choose Five Select Men Voted 
Jeremy Gridley Henry Sewall Esqrs Deacon Ebenezer Davis 
Isaac Gardner Jun'rand Mr. John Harris Jun'r Select Men & 
Assessors Sworn." 

At town meetings held on May 18, 1761, July 3, 1761, 
November 19, 1 761, "Jeremy Gridley Esqr Chosen 
Moderator." 

Here follows in the town records a copy of a deed of a 

wood lot in Needham estimated to contain twenty acres " to 

supply the Minister that may be settled in said Town of 

Brookline from time to time, given by Samuel White of 

Brooklyn, to the Select Men for the Consideration of the 

Sum of Forty pounds 

"(Signed) Samuel White. 

" Signed Sealed and Delivered In Presence of us 

"Jer. Gridley 
"William Davis 

"Suffolk ss. March 12, 1759. 

" The within named Samuel White acknowledged this In- 
strument to be his act and deed 

" Before me 

"Jer. Gridley, 

" Just, of Peace!' 

At a meeting of the town held " May ye 13, 1763," it was 
"Voted That the Attornies of Mrs. Mary Gatcomb be de- 
sired to receive the money which she as Executrix of Mr. 
Edward Devotion has Recovered against Mr. Solomon Hill 
on his Mortgage to said Devotion and pay what is the Town's 
due of it to the School Committee," etc. The attorneys 



26 



were " Jer. Gridley, Isaac Gardner, Robert Sharp & Thomas 
Aspinwall, who paid over " One hundred & twelve pounds 
one shilling Lawful money in full of all dues & Demands 
which Samuel White Esqr late of sd Brookline Deceased or 
us as Executors had on the Estate of sd Devotion or against 
his said Executrix. 

" May 24 1762 (Receipted by) HENRY SEWALL, 

" Ebenz'r Craft." 

The same date — " Rec'd of Jer Gridley, et als the Attor- 
nies paid Twenty Six pounds eighteen shillings & Eight 
pence for ye Payment of the Principal & Interest of my Bond 
to Edward Ruggles of Cambridge which I entered into on 
acc't of said Devotion Legacy to the Town of Brookline 
"May 24 1762 (signed) Robert Sharp." 

The same date — " Rec'd of Jer. Gridley et als fifteen 
Pounds & four pence Lawful money for purchase of a Silver 
Tankard for the Church of ye Town of Brookline according 
to ye will of Mr. Edward Devotion Dec'd. 

"May 24 1762 (signed) Robert Sharp." 

Jeremy Gridley was chosen moderator of the following 
town meetings: March 7, 1763; May 19, 1763; May 24, 
1 764 ; March 3 , 1 766 ; May 2 1 , 1 766 ; and March 2, 1 767. At 
the last mentioned he was chosen a selectman and assessor. 

At a meeting held May 25, 1767, he was chosen modera- 
tor, and after disposing of a part of the business the meeting 
"was adjourned to June ye 12th at 2 o'clock, A.M." (?) 
Probably P.M. was meant, but 2 A.M. on the record. 

On June the 12th, " On account of Jer. Gridley Esqrs In 
disposition Voted that this Meeting be Adjourned to Monday 
the 29th Instant June at five of the Clock A.M." (?) 



June 29th, " Voted that this meeting shall be further Ad- 
journed for the above Reason Viz Jeremiah Gridley Esqrs In- 
disposition to ye July ye 13th Day at 4 of the Clock in the 
afternoon." 

On "July ye 13th Day" Jeremiah Gridley, Esq., was 
present, acted as moderator, and the business of that much 
adjourned meeting was completed. 

"At a Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of Brook- 
line Legally Warned " (no date given) " Jeremy Gridley was 
Unanimously Chosen Moderator," and here end the town 
records and the silence of death and the grave has ever 
since brooded over them concerning him. 

It seems strange to us that he, who had been so prominent 
in town affairs, who had been representative to the Great 
and General Court for three years, a selectman at the time 
of his death, had served on many town committees and mod- 
erator of twenty-one town meetings, one of which had been 
three times adjourned on account of his illness, should lay 
down his gavel for the last time without a word being re- 
corded in regard to his death. 

Of his family and social life in Brookline no record has 
been found other than has already been noticed. It has been 
stated, however, that he was a bachelor. That could not 
have been the case, as the Boston and other records prove 
that he had daughters, Abigail, Sarah, and Rebecca, chil- 
dren " of Jeremiah Gridley and his wife Abigail." But 
of the date of their marriage and of his wife's death no 
record has been found, and it is likely that he was a 
widower while a resident of Brookline, which gave rise to 
the statement that he was a bachelor. 

Jeremy Gridley was made a Freemason, May 11, 1748, in 
the First Lodge, now St. John's. He was Senior Warden of 
that Lodge in 1753 and Master in 1754. He represented 



28 ' 



that Lodge at the Grand Lodge meetings in 1753, 1754, and 

1755- 

October 11, 1754, he was present at the Grand Lodge 
meeting in Concert Hall, at which meeting Bro. Benjamin 
Franklin was a visiting member. Thomas Oxnard, the 
Grand Master, having died, Past Grand Master Henry Price 
presided, and at that meeting " a petition was drawn and 
signed to the Grand Master of Great Britain for the appoint- 
ment of Wor. Bro. Jeremy Gridley to be Grand Master of 
Masons for North America." 

August 21, 1755, at a meeting of the Grand Lodge, held 
at the Royal Exchange Tavern, " Jeremy Gridley informed 
the Lodge ' that he had received a Deputation from Right 
Honourable and Right Worshipful James Brydges, Marquis 
of Carnavon, Grand Master of Masons, appointing him 
Grand Master of North America where no Grand Master 
is at present appointed,' and delivered Our Right Wor. Bro. 
Price, his Deputation, who ordered it to be read and re- 
corded in the Grand Lodge book." 

Gridley was installed Grand Master of Masons, with due 
ceremony, at a Grand Lodge meeting in Concert Hall, 
October 1, 1755. 

" The three Lodges in the Town, and the Master and 
Wardens of Portsmouth, N.H., Lodge, with a great Number 
of Brethren were present Cloathed with white Aprons and 
Gloves, and after the Installation accompanied the Grand 
Master, in Procession to Trinity Church, where Rev'd Mr. 
Hooper read Prayers, and Rev'd Mr. Brown (of Portsmouth) 
Preached an Excellent Sermon on the occasion to a numer- 
ous and Polite audience." 

" After Service the procession was reformed and marched 
back to Concert Hall, where an Elegant Dinner was pre- 
pared, and the afternoon was Spent in Harmony and Mirth. 



29 

The whole Ceremony and attendance was with the greatest 
Decency and made a Genteel appearance." 

Gridley was an able and beloved Grand Master, and de- 
voted much time to the improvement and extension of Free- 
masonry within his jurisdiction, then embracing North 
America, in which the records show he was successful. At 
the beginning of his administration there were but sixteen 
chartered Lodges: 4 in Massachusetts, Connecticut, 3, and in 
New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, 
South Carolina, St. John, N.F., Annapolis, N.S., Halifax, 
N.S., and Antigua, W.I., one each. 

At his death, twelve years thereafter, he had issued War- 
rants and Charters for twenty-two new Lodges : 5 in Massa- 
chusetts ; Connecticut, 3; New York, 3; Rhode Island, 2; 
New Jersey, 2 ; and one each in Virginia, North Carolina, 
Louisburg, C.B., Quebec, Can., St. Christopher, W.I., Barba- 
does, W.I., and Surinam, Dutch Guiana. 

From his death to the close of the Revolution twenty-odd 
others were formed, all of which had an influence in miti- 
gating the rigors of war not clearly understood nor fully 
realized by the public. 

Jeremy Gridley died in Boston September 10, 1767, aged 
66 years and 6 months. His death carried sorrow to the 
hearts of thousands of those who had known him through 
domestic, fraternal, and social ties, or had shared his friend- 
ship in other walks in life. 

His abilities, magnetic influence, manly character, and 
generous nature won the praise of all, as was pictured, 
framed, and set forth in a unique obituary, which was 
printed in the Boston papers at the time of his death. 
And although appearing in the several papers, and with 
little change spread upon the Grand Lodge records, was evi- 
dently written by one who must have known him well, and 



leads to the belief that it was the product of the brain and 
pen of his friend and former pupil, James Otis. 

It is here given as printed in the " Boston Gazette " of 
Monday, September 14, 1767: 

" On Thursday last died here, Jeremy Gridley Esqr 
Attorney-General of the Province, and a Member of the 
General Court: His Funeral was attended on Saturday 
with the Respect due to his Memory by the Members of the 
Council and the Judges of the Superior Court in Town, the 
Gentlemen of the Bar, the Brethren of the Society of Free 
Masons, of which he was Grand Master, the officers of the 
First Regiment, of which he was Colonel, the Members of 
the Marine Society, of which he was President, and a great 
Number of the Gentlemen of the Town : — 

" Strength of Understanding, Clearness of Apprehension, 
and Solidity of Judgment were cultivated in him by a liberal 
Education, and close thinking: 

" His extensive Acquaintance with Classical, and almost 
every other part of Literature, gave him the first Rank 
among Men of Learning : 

" His thorough knowledge of the Civil and Common law, 
which he had studied as a Science, founded in the Princi- 
ples of Government, and the Nature of Man, justly placed 
him at the Head of his Proffession : 

" His tender Feelings relative to his natural and civil Ties ; 
his exquisite Sensibility and generous Effusion of Soul for 
his Friends, were Proofs that his Heart was as Good as his 
Head was sound, and well qualified him to preside over that 
antient Society, whose Benevolent Constitutions do Honor 
to Mankind : 

" He sustained the painful Attacks of Death with a Philo- 
sophical Calmness and Fortitude, that resulted from the steady 
Principles of his Religion. He died in the 62d year of his 
Age." (It should read 67th year of his age.) 



3i 

It was appropriate that the funeral services of this dis- 
tinguished man should be held in the Representatives' Cham- 
ber of the General Court House, in the place where he had 
won honor as a debater, and near the Council Room where 
his voice had been heard in forensic speech, and that it 
should also have been attended by the most august body of 
men the Province could produce, or had been gathered on 
such an occasion in its history. 

The place of his sepulchre is tomb No. 9, Granary Bury- 
ing Ground, erected by his father-in-law, Ezekiel Lewes, and 
unmarked with his name, but his name and fame will outlast, 
doubtless, bronze tablet or granite shaft, and be handed down 
to future generations as an example of what an American 
may become who possesses ability, honesty, generosity, and 
virtue. 

If ever a monument should be raised to his memory, no 
more fitting inscription could be placed upon it than the 
words written (extempore) at the time of his death and 
printed with his obituary, which were : 

"JEREMIAH GRIDLEY BARRISTER-AT-LAW. 

" Of Parts and Learning, Wit and Worth possess'd, 
Gridley shone forth conspicuous o'er the rest ; 
In native Powers robust, and smit with Fame, 
The Genius brighteivd and the Spark took Flame ; 
Nature and Science wove the laurel Crown, 
Ambitious, each alike, conferr'd Renown. — 
High in the Dignity and Strength of Thought, 
The Maze of Knowledge sedulous he sought, 
With Mind Superior Studied and retain'cl 
And Life and Property by Law sustain'd. — 
Generous and free, his lib'ral Hand he spread, 
Th' Oppress'd relieved, and for the Needy Plead ; 
Awake to Friendship, with the ties of Blood 
His Heart expanded and his Soul o'erflow'd. — 
Social in Converse, in the Senate brave, 
Gay e'en in Dignity, with Wisdom grave ; 



32 



Long to his Country and to Courts endear'd, 

The Judges honor'd and the Bar rever'd 

Rest ! Peaceful Shade ! innoxious as thy Walk 
May slander babble and may censure talk. 
Ne'er on thy MemVy Envy cast a Blot — 
But human Frailties in thy Worth forgot.* 1 



^forCONG^ 

>y RECEIVED °(P 

JAN 2 7 1904 




£ft/0DICM.J^ 



No. 2 




PUBLICATIONS 



OF THE 



Brookline Historical Society 



ELHANAN WINCHESTER 

RECOLLECTIONS OF BROOKLINE 

BROOKLINE VILLAGE, 1865 TO 1902 



PUBLICATIONS 



OF THE 



Brookline Historical Society 



ELHANAN WINCHESTER 

By John Emory Hoar 

RECOLLECTIONS OF BROOKLINE 

By Mrs. Mary W. Poor 

BROOKLINE VILLAGE, 1865 TO 1902 

From Notes by Martin Kingman 




BROOKLINE, MASS. : 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 

M CM III 









' c.H.U».Spen«r, 
BrooMine,' ' 
1tta$$.' 



P. 

Author. 
Zt '04 




JOHN EMORY HOAR 



From a painting by Frederick /'. Vinton 
in the Brookline Hiirl: School 



Tin flDemonam 
JOHN EMORY HOAR 



By R. G. F. Candage 



Since the last monthly meeting" of the Brookline His- 
torical Society, death has entered its circle of membership for 
the fourth time since its incorporation of less than a year, 
and this time has taken its first Vice-President, Mr. John 
Emory Hoar, who died at his late home on High street, after 
an illness of several weeks duration, on March 29, 1902. 

Mr. Hoar was born on a farm in Poultney, Vermont, in 
1828 ; he attended the public schools of his native town, 
spent two years at Middlebury College, Vermont, and then 
entered Harvard University, at which he was graduated in 
the Class of 1852. 

After his graduation, teaching became his vocation. He 
taught one year in the Cambridge, Mass., High School, and 
in 1854 he came to Brookline to reside and to assume the 
principalship of the Brookline High School, to which he had 
been elected, and over which for thirty-four consecutive years 
he continued to preside with marked ability. 

During that long period there were thousands of the youth 
of the town of both sexes under his care and instruction, by 
whom he was greatly beloved and highly respected, and for 
whose death they mourn the loss, not only of a loved teacher, 
but of a warm personal friend. 

Mr. Hoar was also the first Librarian of the Brookline 
Public Library, having been appointed to that position in 
1857, and continuing as such until 1871, when he resigned, 
that he might devote his whole time and thought to the in- 
creasing demands of the High School. 

The success of the Library in its infancy was due to his 
wise care and nurture in a large measure, and to the assistance 
he received from his pupils in the school, whom he had en- 
listed in its behalf. 



Like the competent commander he proved to be, he de- 
vised his plans and marshaled his forces with the forethought 
of success. 

In 1874, at tne annual meeting of the town, he with the 
Town Clerk and two others was appointed a committee "to 
have the records of the hamlet of Muddy River and of the 
town of Brookline down to the year 1837 printed for the use 
of the town." 

In the preparation of those records for the press, which 
contain data of great historical value to every student of the 
settlement and the earlier events of the town, Mr. Hoar and 
the Town Clerk, it is understood, performed the greater part 
of the labor. 

In 1895, ne w as elected by the town a Trustee of the Public 
Library, and continued a member thereof until his death. 
He possessed a wide knowledge of books and of authors and 
a just estimate of their influence upon the reading public, 
which made him a valuable member of the board of Trustees. 
His courtesy and regard for the feelings and opinions of 
those with whom he was associated, however widely they 
might differ from his own, greatly endeared him to the 
members of that board. 

In 1897, ne was elected by the town a member of the 
School Committee, a position his long acquaintance with the 
schools and experience as a teacher in the town qualified him 
to fill, and in which he continued until his decease. 

For thirty years he was a member of the Brookline Thurs- 
day Club, resigning from it less then a year before his death 
on account of failing health and duties devolving upon 
him. In that organization, as in all others of which he was a 
member, he won the esteem and friendship of those with 
whom he was associated. He read before it many papers of 
excellence, and contributed in that and in other ways to its 
interest and success. 

He was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry in 
Beth-Horon Lodge, Brookline, in 1873, and remained a 
member thereof to the end of his life. He took a deep 
interest in the Lodge, and successively passed through the 
lower stations to reach the Master's chair in 1880, which he 
occupied for two years. As Master of the Lodge, his zeal for 
its welfare, his gentlemanly courtesy to all under him, im- 



pressed themselves for good on the membership, as might 
have been expected of one possessing his education, moral 
fiber, and kindly nature. 

He had been a member of the New England Historic 
Genealogical Society since 1866, and was a member of the 
committee on papers and essays of that Society for the year 
1902. He was greatly interested in genealogical and his- 
torical matters and in the meetings of the Society and its 
general welfare. 

He was also a member of several other organizations and 
clubs, where he was appreciated and valued for his uniform 
kindliness and friendships. 

In the Brookline Historical Society, where he was Vice- 
President, to whose interests he was devoted, and before 
which he read a paper on Elhanan Winchester, and had in 
preparation another to be read when he was summoned to 
go home, we knew his worth and deeply feel his loss. He 
was a cheerful and ready friend to the Society's interests. 
When it was about to be formed he entered earnestly into 
the undertaking. When it was organized, his name appeared 
as one of its charter members, and on the roll of its officers 
his name also appeared as Vice-President, a Trustee, and on 
committees. 

He gave promise of being a useful member for several 
years to come, and one of its strong supporters. He had a 
fondness for historic and genealogical research, the leisure 
and inclination to engage in it, the carefully trained habit 
of being correct in his work, nearly half a century's know- 
ledge of life and experience in the town of his adoption, 
familiarity with its scenes, changes, and its older families, 
which qualified him for any office in the gift of the Society, 
or for almost any work which it saw fit to impose and he was 
willing to undertake in its behalf. 

But alas ! his work is done, and on us who are left rests 
the responsibility of taking it up where he rested, and of 
carrying it forward to the best of our ability. 

During his nearly fifty years of residence, few persons, if 
any, exerted a greater influence upon the educational interests 
of the town than he, or left a more endurable impression 
upon the community. He possessed a just estimate of in- 
dividuals, a high standard of moral rectitude, and was strong 



in his friendships, qualities that won for him the regard and 
good opinion of all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. 

In his death this Society has lost a valued member and an 
honored officer, and we, its members, a personal friend, to 
whose memory and worth we place upon our records this 
memorial tribute. 

According to the order of nature some of us should have 
gone before he was called, and must go sooner or later. 
With that thought in mind it may not be out of place to 
repeat lines bearing upon that subject, of an unknown poet, 
which are as follows : — 

" Some time at eve when the tide ebbs low, 

We'll slip our moorings and sail away 
With no response to the friendly hail 

Of kindred craft in life's busy bay ; 
In the silent hush of twilight pale, 

When night stoops down to embrace the day, 
And voices call in the tide's outgo, 

We'll slip our moorings and sail away ! 

" Through purple shadows that darkly trail 
O'er ebbing tide of "The Unknown Sea," 
We shall speed away with flapping sail, 

With but a ripple to tell the tale 
Of a lone voyager sailing away 
To Mystic Isles, where at anchor lay 
The fleets of those who have sailed before, 
'The Unknown Sea, to the Unknown Shore !' 

" A few who watch as we sail away, 
May miss our craft from life's busy bay; 
A few loving ones our hearts hold dear 
In silent sorrow may drop a tear ; 
But we shall have snugly furled our sails 
At moorings sheltered from storms and gales, 
And greeted friends that have sailed before, 

'The Unknown Sea, to the Unknown Shore ! ' ' 

Brookline, April 23, 1902. 



ELHANAN WINCHESTER 

PREACHER AND TRAVELER* 



By John Emory Hoar 



The best men, the purest patriots, are not they who with 
Decatur say, my country right or wrong ; the best citizens, 
the profoundest statesmen, are not they who sacrifice to party 
what belongs to mankind ; rectitude is not always a synonym 
for expediency, nor duty for policy. 

These reflections are suggested by the life of Rev. Elhanan 
Winchester, a native of Brookline, born Sept. 30, 175 1, who 
died at Hartford, Conn., April 18, 1797. He was born in the 
old Sheafe house on Heath street, near where this street 
connects with Boylston street or the old Worcester turnpike. 
The place once belonged to Joshua Stedman, then to Joseph 
White, then to Deacon Elhanan Winchester, who was the 
father of the Rev. Elhanan Winchester, the subject of this 
paper ; it afterwards was the well-known Richards Hotel ; 
then it belonged to Mr. Petters, and later to Mark Wentworth 
Sheafe, whom some of us remember, and whose son Mark 
was a colonel in the late war for the Union, and was made 
general from South Dakota by President McKinley in the 
late Cuban War. 

Rev. Elhanan Winchester was the eldest of fifteen children 
of Deacon Elhanan and Sarah Winchester, and was great- 
great-grandson of John Winchester^ who, when nineteen 
years old, came from England to Boston in 1635 in the same 
ship with Sir Henry Vane, who we all know the next year 
was elected the fourth governor of Massachusetts. Vane was 

*A paper read before the Society November 27, 1901. 

t John Winchester came in 1635 with Sir Henry Vane. 
Josiah Winchester, m. Mary. 
Dea. Elhanan Winchester, m. Mary. 
Dea. Elhanan Winchester, m. Sarah ? 

Rev. Elhanan Winchester, m. Alice Rogers of Rowley, 1770. 4 child, 
m. Sarah Peck of Rehoboth, 1776. 2 child, 
m. Sarah Luke of S. Carolina, 1778. 
m. Mary Morgan, 1781 ; 2 child, 
m. Maria Knowles, about 1784. 
Of his eight children only one was born alive, and she 
lived only seventeen months. 



8 

admitted to the Church in Boston, Nov. I, 1635 ; and Alexander 
Winchester,* who was brother of John Winchester and servant 
to Sir Henry, was admitted to the same church with Vane on 
the eighth of the same month. 

Alexander died without male issue, and John, therefore, 
became the ancestor of all the Winchesters in this country ; 
and some claim that there are more of this name in the 
country than of any other name, not excepting Smith and 
Jones. 

The Winchesters settled in Brookline in 1650, about fifteen 
years after they came to this country. John Winchester was 
the first representative from Brookline to the General Court. 
His house was on Harvard street, nearly opposite the Devo- 
tion House, on the site where William J. Griggs' house now 
stands. His land extended from Harvard street to the top of 
"the Great Hill," now called Corey Hill. Nearly through 
the middle of that land now runs Winchester street, with 
great propriety so named. Nathan Winchester, a grandson 
of John Winchester, built the house standing a little way 
beyond William J. Griggs', usually called the David Coolidge 
house, which, though altered and much enlarged, still retains 
much of its original character. On that memorable nine- 
teenth of April, some of the British troops on their march 
to Lexington stopped at this house for water to drink. The 
frightened inmates gave the water, but rejoiced with trembling 
to see the hated redcoats pass on. 

The Winchester family also owned land on the west side of 
Corey Hill, even to Brighton line. Isaac Winchester had a 
house on Washington street on the site where is now the 
Corey stone house, occupied by the Misses Frye. As already 
stated the Winchesters also owned land on Heath street 
where lived Deacon Elhanan Winchester, the father of 
Rev. Elhanan ; the latter was born in the old Sheafe house, 
just about one hundred years after his ancestor John came to 
Brookline. He was a remarkable child, if we can credit all 
that is said of him. At five years of age he was regarded a 
good reader ; yet his opportunities for school were limited, 
for he went only a little while each winter till he was sixteen 



*January 8, 1637, is the first mention of Alexander Winchester in Muddy 
River, when he received a Great Allotment there (presumably in the South- 
east part of Longvvood ?). 



years old. His father had a family of fifteen children to sup- 
port from his farm and a shoemaker's bench. Such, however, 
was the boy's ambition to learn, that, in addition to the 
studies taught in his school, he acquired some knowledge of 
Latin, and later a useful knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. 
His teachers were astonished at the facility with which he 
learned, and at his wonderful memory. Anecdotes are pre- 
served to illustrate his remarkable memory. 

Every accessible book he read with avidity. He began to 
preach and lecture when he was eighteen years old. Being 
brought up near the borders of Newton, he preached there, 
and is said to have been the father of the Baptist church in 
Newton. Nearly all its first members were baptized by him. 
Barry, in his " History of Framingham," makes the Win- 
chesters the founders of the Baptist Church of Brookline. 

At this time there was only one church in Brookline, the 
First Church, now called the Unitarian. The Baptist Church 
was organized about 1828, and the Congregational in 1844. 
There were a few families in the upper part of the 
town who were called " New Lights,"* and held their 
meetings at private houses. Among these families of 
" New Lights " was that of Elhanan's father. The enthu- 
siasm to which his temperament was predisposed was 
naturally cherished and increased by the " New Lights." He 
became a remarkably eloquent and successful preacher. We 
shall find him a great traveler. Soon after he began to preach 
he visited Canterbury, Conn. This was in 1771. There 
he was baptized and admitted to the Baptist church. Mul- 
titudes came to hear his eloquence and be magnetized by his 
zeal. From Canterbury he went to Rehoboth and there 
gathered a church of about seventy members. Here he 
adopted the plan of close communion. This divided his 
church, and he deemed it best to take a journey into New 
Hampshire and Vermont ; then he went to Grafton, Mass., 
and preached. In due time he returned to Rehoboth ; but as 
he found the trouble there had not subsided, he called a 
Council to mediate between him and the church. The Coun- 
cil decided "he had left an error to embrace the truth," but 
the people decided otherwise. 

*The "New Lights" maintain a hope of the " restoration of all things." 
The hope is grounded on the implied failure of the redemptive work of the 
Saviour unless all for whom he died ultimately partake of salvation. 



10 

From Rehoboth he went to Bellingham, and soon became 
a thorough Calvinist preacher. In 1772, he went to Grafton 
and gathered audiences from Grafton, Upton and North- 
bridge. He next removed to Hull and preached nearly two 
yea>s,, — 1773 and 1774. During this time he repeatedly 
visited his native place and preached with marked success in 
Brookline and Newton. 

The latter part of 1774, by invitation he took charge of a 
Baptist Society in a town on the great Pec Dec river in 
South Carolina. In a few months he returned to New Eng- 
land for his wife, to take her with him to Carolina. They 
reached Virginia, where the wife was taken ill and died. 
After some months more in Carolina, in which he is said 
greatly to have benefited both the whites and the negroes, 
he came to Boston and supplied the First Baptist Church 
there while the pastor, Dr. Stillman, was in Philadelphia. 
Again he went to South Carolina, preaching on his way 
through Virginia. Within a short time he added to his 
church on the Pec Dec one hundred and forty whites ; he also 
baptized one hundred slaves. His opposition to slavery was 
well-known and this recommended him to the favorable atten- 
tion of the slaves, while it did not make him offensive to the 
whites, as the feeling of the South then toward slavery was 
very different from what it became in the next century. 
Again he returned to New England, where he preached with 
applause and success for nine months. He was soon requested 
to preach to the Baptist church in Philadelphia. He con- 
sented, and such excitement was produced by his labors that 
his congregation grew too large for the meeting house, and 
St. Paul's, the Episcopal church, the largest in the city, was 
procured, and was filled to overflowing ; and most of the 
clergy of all denominations embraced every opportunity to 
hear him. It was at this time, when he was about thirty 
years old, that he embraced the doctrine of Universal Res- 
toration, and to his death continued a devoted advocate of the 
doctrine. 

Winchester's sincerity was never questioned. His nearest 
relatives fully believed in and trusted him. By his eloquence 
and reasoning, his father joined the " New Lights " ; and 
later under his son's preaching he became a Universal Res- 
torationist, and died in this belief. But by embracing and 



II 

openly avowing this doctrine of Universal Restoration, the 
son Winchester divided his church in Philadelphia ; a majority 
opposed him. The minority, however, with others who were 
continually joining him, formed another church and built a 
new meeting house in Lombard street, in which the First 
Universalist church of Philadelphia still worships. The 
famous Dr. Rush and other eminent men were not afraid to 
indorse and join him. Under his ministry this new society 
prospered six years. Then his brother Moses engaged to 
supply his pulpit while Elhanan, always exceedingly fond of 
travel, determined to visit England. He reached London in 
1787, and for some years preached in Worship street Sunday 
mornings, and in the evening at Glass House Yard, till his 
friends engaged the chapel in Parliament Court. Here he 
held meetings while he stayed in England, making excursions 
from London to Chatham, Birmingham, Wisebeach and 
Fleet, and preached in nearly every Baptist meeting house 
in the county of Kent. Among his many followers in London 
was the distinguished Rev. William Vidler, who later supplied 
Winchester's pulpit in London. 

Winchester returned to Boston again July 12, 1794, and 
immediately came here to Brookline, his native town. There 
was no Baptist society in Brookline at that time. But during 
the remainder of the summer and the following autumn he 
was constantly preaching in the vicinity of Boston and other 
parts of New England. A general convention of Universa- 
lists in September of that year met at Oxford, Massachusetts, 
in which Winchester was moderator. 

About this time, writing to London, he says, "I have the 
greatest door open that I ever saw, insomuch that I am sur- 
prised at the alteration since I was last here. I have preached 
in a great many meeting houses of different denominations, 
and to great numbers of people, as often as eight or nine 
times a week, with greater acceptance than I ever did." 

It was in the midst of this activity in 1794 that he was 
writing his answer to Tom Paine's " Age of Reason," pub- 
lished for him in Boston, in December of that year. Re- 
markable too, it is, how he continued to gratify his love for 
travel. And we should recall the facilities, or rather, the 
want or lack of facilities for travel which existed at that time. 
In the following year, 1795, he traveled extensively in almost 



12 

all parts of the country, particularly in the South. With his 
former society in Philadelphia, he met the celebrated Dr. 
Priestly, who was delivering a series of lectures there. He 
told Mr. Winchester's society there that he agreed with their 
minister in his doctrine of Universal Restoration. 

From Philadelphia he went to Hartford, Connecticut, 
where on April i, 1797, he delivered his last sermon. An 
increasing asthma had foretold a fatal termination ; he died 
on the 18th of April, 1797, aged forty-six years and five 
months. He was a man of unquestioned honesty and honor, 
of uniform, cheerful serenity, of unconquerable benevolence 
and charity. 

In his matrimonial relations he was unfortunate and deeply 
bereft. For his first wife he married Alice Rogers, of 
Rowley, in 1770, she died in 1776; for his second wife he 
married Sarah Peck, of Rehoboth, in 1776, she died in 1777; 
he then married Sarah Luke, of South Carolina, in 1778, she 
died in 1779; in 1781 he married Mary Morgan, she died in 
1783 ; for his fifth wife he married Maria Knowles in 1784, 
who survived him. Though he had eight children not one 
survived him, and Rev. Elhanan Winchester has no descen- 
dant. He was the author of the following publications : — 

New Book of Poems on Several Occasions, 1773. 1 vol. 

Hymns, 1776. 1 vol. 

The Universal Restoration ; Exhibited in a Series of Dia- 
logues, London, 1778. 1 vol. 

Course of Lectures on the Prophesies that remain to be 
Fulfilled, 1789. 4 vols. 

An Oration on the Discovery of America, 1792. 1 vol. 

The Three Woe Trumpets, 1793. 1 vol. 

Plain Political Catechism for Schools. 

Progress and Empire of Christ, 1793. 1 vol. 

He also published a number of single sermons. 




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RECOLLECTIONS OF BROOKLINE* 



By Mrs. Mary W. Poor 

(Daughter of Rev. John Pierce) 



Having been requested to write some of my recollections of 
Brookline in the eighteen hundred and twenties, I begin with 
the attempt to do justice to its great beauty in those days. 
Every one spoke of it as " Beautiful Brookline." This was 
partly due to the rolling and well wooded surface and to the 
splendid elms of uncommon size and picturesque shape that 
fairly embowered the village and a great part of the town. 
The queen of these noble trees was the " Aspinwall elm," 
which stood at the southwest corner of the old "Aspinwall 
house " very near the site of the Episcopal church. An 
immense tree stood in front of the old Punch Bowl Tavern, 
and noble specimens at the entrance of Walnut street, then 
called the " Sherburne Road," or more frequently the " Old 
Road." It seemed poor judgment on the part of the Select- 
men to change this time-honored name to "Walnut street," 
and it showed a sad lack of originality on their part, since 
almost every town in New England has a " Walnut street," 
while few can have a " Sherburne Road." Dr. T. E. Francis 
wonders that no one has written of the immense locust trees 
that were then common in Brookline. These vied with the 
elms in size, if not in gracefulness. Two such trees stood in 
front of the parsonage of the First Church. Staples were 
driven into their trunks, to which horses were "hitched" 
while their owners were visiting the minister. 

Cypress street, then called "The New Lane," (all the streets 
were lanes in those days,) was a dream of beauty. At the 
upper corner of what are now Boylston and Cypress streets 
was a pretty wood, and shrubs and many wild flowers grew 
down the hill. The brook, which was one of the beauties of 
old Brookline, here widened into a lovely little pond shaped 
like the shell named Pinna. It was shaded by a fine oak and 
was an ideal spot for children to play in when they ought to 
have been hurrying to school. From the brook nearly to the 
spot where the Bethany Sunday School now stands the New 

* A paper read before the Society May 27, 1903. 



14 

Lane was a bower. Locust trees on both sides of the way met, 
making the road such an attraction for pedestrians that it was 
often called " Lovers' Lane." The roadsides of Brookline, 
without the aid of landscape gardeners, were in those days 
closely fringed with shrubs of native growth, barbery, privet, 
sumach, sweetbriar, and the like. Blackberries, thimble- 
berries and raspberries were trained over these bushes by 
nature gracefully, as her work is always done when she has 
her own way. The path of the truant schoolboy or girl was 
beset with snares. There were no sidewalks, and these 
lovely shrubberies were full of attractions for youthful feet 
where delicious fruit was to be had, without money and 
without price. What child, however a satisfactory breakfast 
he might have eaten at home, could resist the temptation to 
pick his own dessert as he went " creeping like a snail 
unwillingly to school " ? The wonder is, that he ever arrived 
there at all. One of the loveliest of these lanes extended 
from the Meeting House on Walnut street up Warren street 
and through Clyde. It seemed a wicked act of desecration to 
change it into a vulgar " street," but villages will grow to 
towns, and wider thoroughfares are needed when a neigh- 
boring city begins to drive, for business or pleasure, through 
these suburban roadways. 

The woods were filled with wild flowers many of which 
have been trampled out of existence by the march of civili- 
zation. In Trull's woods, afterwards Pierce's, now Codman's, 
were the loveliest anemones, and gayest of columbines, and 
the tallest blue violets I ever saw. There was one species of 
asclepias that I have never found elsewhere. That was 
destroyed in Mr. Silas Pierce's day by fires that ran through 
the woods to " destroy the underbrush." Alas for that fire ! 
What treasures, dear to the heart of the botanist, were con- 
sumed by its devouring flames ! We may see places as 
beautiful in the " sweet fields beyond the swelling flood," but 
never again shall we find in Brookline such hepaticas, 
such wild honeysuckles, and such mayflowers as every 
country child could gather for itself in those woods and 
swamps. Coming up Walnut street from the village were 
fine rocks by the roadside, covered with moss and columbines, 
just such as children love to play on. There is only one other 
person in Brookline who can recall the delights of those rocks. 



i5 

A charming walk began on the other side of a stone wall, 
near where Cypress street now offers on open roadway. There 
we found cinnamon roses, " where once a garden smiled," and a 
path led through woods to an open ground where tradition 
said soldiers once manoeuvered, thence up the hill where a gate 
in Mr. Thomas Lee's rustic fence gave an entrance to his 
beautiful grounds. Through these all quiet and harmless 
children were allowed to walk on their way to Jamaica Pond. 
If Mr. Lee happened to see them and to find that they were 
fond of flowers, he was wont to cut for them little bouquets 
of his precious specimens, and even to allow them to walk 
through his greenhouse. His " lawn " was our first realization 
of the meaning of that word, so common even then in English 
books. Blessed be his memory ! 

Longwood was another most attractive place. One went 
through the farm belonging to the old Aspinwall house and 
came to a long and delightful wooded hill from which the 
place derived it name. There were few flowers, but there was 
something fascinating even to a child in that long winding 
hill top, shaded by splendid trees, sloping on the side towards 
Boston to impassable swamps, and on the other side to culti- 
vated fields. 

The brooks of Brookline were most attractive. The one in 
the valley running south of Tappan street was not then shut 
in by stony walls, but rambled about in its own sweet way, 
singing as it went. At one spot it parted, making a little 
mossy island. We crossed on stepping-stones to this fairy 
islet, which was shaded by large trees and was a favorite 
resort and play-place for children. In the village this brook 
again widened into a pond, a delicious foot bath for droves of 
cows and oxen on their way from Brighton to their tragic end, 
and was a play-place for village boys and girls. 

Another brook, which rose just beyond the present Boston 
Reservoir and is now turned out of its course and restrained 
from having its own way, ran under Boylston street, then 
called "the Turnpike," through the grounds of Mr. Benjamin 
Goddard, where was an artificial waterfall, my first ideal of 
Niagara. Then it went under the road again, and ran grace- 
fully through land belonging to Mr. Sumner, thence to the 
estate of Mr. Thomas Walley, where it was encouraged to be 
as beautiful as art assisting nature could make it. It passed 



i6 

by an ideal wood, where Mr. Walley built a large summer 
house and many a rustic seat. Having a fine taste, great love 
of nature, ample means and no business cares, he made it an 
object lesson for the town. After the place passed out of Mr. 
Walley's hands these fine trees were cut down for firewood. 
Colonel Thomas H. Perkins was at that time abroad, and 
when he came home and saw that this wood was gone, he 
greatly lamented that he had been absent when the deed was 
done, and said that he would have bought that wood for the 
sake of the pleasure of seeing it as he drove to Boston. 

We were so accustomed to hearing our town called 
"beautiful Brookline," that we almost fancied the adjective to 
be a part of its real name. I will add two tributes from poets 
{sic) which are sincere if not sublime. One is from William B. 
Tappan, author of several volumes of verses, of which but 
two are likely to live — "Wake, isles of the South!" and 
" There is an hour of peaceful rest." 

" I have revisited thy silvan scenes, 
Brookline ! in this the summer of my day. 
Again have reveled in thy lovely vales, 
And feasted vision on thy glorious hills ; 
As once I reveled, feasted, in the spring 
Of careless, happy boyhood. . . . 
The same thy hills and dells, those skies the same 
Of rich October; such as only bend 
Over New England ; and the same gray walls, 
Reared in New England's infancy, are those, 
Which charmed imagination. Thou art fair, 
And beautiful as ever. Fancy deems 
Thy sweet retreat excused the common doom 
Caused by the fall ; as if the Architect 
Were willing, by such specimen to show 
What Eden in its primal beauty was." 

The other poem is by Mr. B. B. Thacher, a young lawyer 
from Maine, who gave fair promise of success in periodical 
literature, but died young. It begins : — 

" Sweet refuge in the shadow of green trees 
Is this and fair to gaze on ; he that sees 
It lingers, and looks backward with a sigh 
For beauty ne'er to be forgotten, so shall I." 



17 

On the lattice work of the summer house in Walley's grove 
were many impromptu verses and many names of visitors in 
pencil. If we had known that it was to be removed to 
Bradley Hill and turned into a dwelling house for laborers, we 
would have copied those of interest, which were many. That 
dear old Brookline has gone, never to return. 

As Brookline has changed outwardly, so have its manners 
and customs. In those old days there was no attention paid 
to Christmas beyond saying, " I wish you a merry Christmas ! " 
to the members of the family when we first met them in the 
morning. We never dreamed of its being made merrier than 
any other day. The schools went on as usual and no one 
expected a Christmas gift We had New Year's presents 
instead. I never heard of Santa Claus till I was sixteen and 
then he was mentioned by a lady from New York. We knew 
that Catholic and Episcopal churches were dressed with ever- 
greens at Christmas, and sometimes went to Boston to see 
them on that day. There were then one Catholic and three 
Episcopal churches in Boston. There was but one Irishman 
in Brookline. The few of the richer families in town who 
possessed greenhouses employed Scotch gardeners. We were 
all proud of Colonel Thomas H. Perkins' gardens and of him 
personally, as a prince among men. He invited all distin- 
guished foreigners who came to this country, and many of our 
own men of note, to his house, where they were hospitably 
entertained. I dimly remember the excitement when General 
Lafayette came. All Brookline was on the qui vive. 
Parties of ladies and children with offerings of flowers stood 
in the street to do homage to him as he passed in an open 
barouch to dine with Colonel Perkins. I was not one of these 
favored ones, being only three or four years' old, but some of 
those to whom he spoke celebrated the anniversary of that 
rare event annually all the rest of their lives, especially one 
young girl whom he kissed in acknowledgment of the flowers 
she gave to him. I also remember my father's great enjoy- 
ment, in dining at Colonel Perkins' house, to meet Audubon 
and other distinguished men. There were then few public 
libraries, even in Boston, and those were not supplied with 
the most valuable books. Colonel Perkins was supposed to 
buy all that were worth reading and was most kind in lending 
them to his acquaintances. Many of them found their way to 



the Parsonage. I remember that the moment a borrowed book 
came into that house it was carefully covered and placed on 
a shelf which children could not reach. 

Captain Cook's place was a favorite haunt. He lived in the 
large house now occupied by Mr. Little, and built the 
picturesque cottage next to it on Cottage street for his son. 
He had between these houses a marble fountain surrounded 
by a small pond well stocked with gold and silver fishes, the 
first I had ever seen. He planted many fine trees and laid 
out the path which now runs some distance into the 
present Sargent place. 

The only meeting house of Brookline was that of the First 
Parish, till a Baptist place of worship was built in 1828. It 
was a large building, with a spire like the one on the First 
Unitarian Church in Roxbury, which could be seen for a great 
distance in all directions and was near the geographical 
center of the town. It stood where Dr. Lyon's church now 
does, facing Walnut street, but a little further back. There 
was only room for a narrow path between it and the rocks. 
The meeting house was built on a foundation of long granite 
blocks such as are called " underpinning " in the country, 
leaving an open space or cellar under it. On the north and 
south sides were square air-holes, two on each side, directly 
opposite to each other. We thought it great fun to run to 
these holes and see each other's faces, which looked as if they 
were set in frames and very far off. I do not think they were 
large enough for us to crawl through and the great dark space 
looked scarcely inviting enough to induce us to make the 
attempt. We shouted to each other and our voices had a 
weird, unnatural sound. 

In front of the meeting house was a graveled terrace sur- 
rounded by granite posts with two rows of iron chains 
hanging in loops between them. It had three front doors, 
the central one opened into a large porch which led to the 
broad or central aisle and was so high that it presented quite 
a grand appearance to a child. The other doors opened into 
smaller and lower porches and thence into the side aisles. In 
these porches were flights of stairs going up to the galleries, 
in which were three long rows of seats for the singers, and 
many pews. The house was warmed by two stoves which 
stood between the broad and the two side aisles. Iron pipes 



19 

ran from the whole length of the building to the windows in 
the back of the church. I recall the beauty of the smoke 
curling up from these pipes. As the minister read from the 
Psalms " Fire and hail, snow and vapor," I thought, "That is 
vapor praising the Lord ! " Young hearts beat quick on the 
Sunday before Thanksgiving day when the minister unrolled 
the great proclamation and read it through to the end — 
" Levi Lincoln, Governor ; Edward D. Bangs, Secretary. 
God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." Levi 
Lincoln's name always stood in my recollection associated 
with unlimited turkey, goose, chicken pie, and every 
imaginable dinner delicacy known in those days. 

A small flight of stairs from the northeastern side porch 
led to the third story of the meeting house, where was a long 
pew for colored people, raised as far above the singers' gallery 
as that was above the auditorium. When a little child, I used 
to amuse myself by looking at "Black Susie," who was stout 
and had such a round face that I fancied she resembled a 
full moon ! She was for a long time the only specimen of the 
colored race in the town. 

Above the stairs to the negro seats were rough steps 
leading to the belfry and thence to a charming room with 
windows on eight sides, whence were splendid views of Brook- 
line, Boston, surrounding towns, and the Harbor. Comfort- 
able seats under these windows provided a rest for feet weary 
with climbing so long a flight of stairs, and also standing 
places for children too little to see the prospect from the floor. 
They were forbidden to ascend to these heights without the 
escort of some older person, as the stairs had no side rails and 
were unsafe for careless climbers. If there was a steeple as 
high as that old one now on the same site, so different an out- 
look would be spread before the eye of an observer that there 
would be little likeness between the two pictures. As I 
lately looked from the third story of the Parsonage I saw but 
two familiar objects in the entire panorama, the dome of the 
State House and the spire of Park Street Church, and even 
the dome was greatly changed in consequence of being 
gilded. Not a trace remained of old Brookline. In 1844, 
some twenty years later than the time I have in mind as I 
write, there were but eighty-eight houses in the whole town- 
ship of Brookline. I could not even guess how many that 
area now contains. 



20 

It was the custom when there was a funeral in town to 
send a boy to the highest open space in the steeple to watch 
for the funeral procession leaving the house of mourning. 
When it began to move the bell ringer would toll the bell 
till it reached the church. The memory of that dismal tolling 
haunts me still. It was called the "passing bell." I wondered 
when it would ring for me. 

The pulpit was a high one approached by circular stairs on 
each side. The boots of ascending ministers had left marks 
on the uprights of these stairs which to a childish imagination, 
wearied by lengthy sermons that seemed interminable, rep- 
resented pictures to be carefully studied. One resembled a 
group of people, another a woodside with trees and bushes, 
another fairies dancing, another a schoolmistress surrounded 
by her pupils, and so on. How little ones who sat too far 
from the pulpit to see these pictures endured the tedium of 
long services I could not imagine. 

Everybody went to meeting in those days, both to morning 
and afternoon services. As I look back so many years I 
recall nothing whatever of the sermons, but every face in the 
audience is in my memory still, particularly that of the dear 
old lady who invariably repeated as she passed the Parsonage 
pew on going out, no matter who preached, "Truly a most 
excellent discourse." Among the leading figures was Deacon 
Goddard, then a tall, handsome young man, in the singing 
seats ; the Miss Gardiners, who dressed in brighter colors 
than any other worshipers ; in General Dearborn's pew, his 
daughter, Miss Julia, who seemed to me a perfect beauty ; 
Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Clark, with their pew full of pretty 
children ; old Captain Goddard, sometimes standing up to 
keep himself awake ; and my uncle Charles Tappan, shaking 
his head at me when I was restless ; the kind old ladies who 
had footstoves, which were filled with hot coals, of walnut 
wood, I suppose, which they passed over the tops of their 
pews to neighbors, after they had sufficiently warmed their 
own feet. It was a relief from the tedium of a long sermon to 
watch them. 

One seat half way down the broad aisle was never vacant. 
Summer and winter, forenoon and afternoon, Mr. Thomas 
Aspinwall was always there. He had been deaf and dumb 
since an attack of scarlet fever in his early childhood, but 



21 

there were no more fervent worshipers than he. He would 
have been a fine subject for a poem by Whittier. As he was 
a frequent visitor at the Parsonage and very fond of children, 
I early learned to talk with him by signs after his own system 
of language, so that we understood one another well. I have 
still a set a mahogany bobbins he made for my mother, and a 
toy set he made for me. Talking in his sign language, when 
he had occasion to refer to me he held up his little finger to 
designate my small self, the youngest child in the Parsonage. 
Near his was the Hyslop pew with elegant upholstery and its 
hymn books bound in scarlet morocco, having book plates 
bearing the family coat of arms, and the legend, By the 
name of Hyslop. Mr. Hyslop died either before I was born 
or soon after, so I have no recollection of him personally, 
but his hymn books left a strong impression of earthly 
grandeur in my youthful mind. 

Well I remember how on stinging cold winter mornings 
the people who had walked to meeting through the snow 
stamped their feet in the porches to rid themselves of it. 

Miss Emily Marshall once came to meeting and sat in the 
Parsonage pew. I was too young to appreciate her beauty, 
which was as universally acknowledged by my elders as that 
of Sirius among the stars. She had, I believe, engaging 
manners and a perfect freedom from affectation, and well 
deserved the admiration she received. 

It was my custom as soon as I saw Dr. Lowell in the 
pulpit, to find the hymn, "While Thee I seek, Protecting 
Power," and pass it to my mother, because I knew he would 
be sure to read it. I since learned that it was one of his 
favorite hymns but was not in the book used in his parish, so 
he always chose it when preaching in pulpits where he could 
find it. I am sorry I was too young to appreciate Dr. Chan- 
ning's sermons when he exchanged with my father. I wish I 
could remember them as well as I do his face. 

The Walnut street cemetery was the only burying ground 
in the town. It was much smaller than it now is, one acre 
having been set apart by the townspeople for the last 
resting place of their dead. A simple stone wall surrounded 
it. The entrance gate was below the brick tomb still remain- 
ing on Walnut street. The southwestern corner was a lovely 
spot. It was on the rising ground just beyond the unsightly 



22 

row of brick tombs now remaining. It was shaded by a fine 
walnut tree which spread its branches on all sides like a tent. 
Outside of this wall were barberry bushes and a sweet-briar 
bush of remarkable size and beauty. Looking over it on the 
south side one could see a beautiful little pond surrounded by 
lofty trees. This pond was large enough for boys to bathe 
in during the summer months and skate over in the winter- 
Beyond it were fine rocks. In 1826 Captain Oxnard, who 
then lived on Walnut street, having lost a little boy, greatly 
beloved and mourned, fixed upon this spot as the most appro- 
priate that could be found for his darling to rest in, and little 
George was laid there and a white marble monument was set 
up to mark the spot. Near it the beloved teacher, George B. 
Emerson, had chosen a lot in which his young wife was laid. 
She was one who was spoken of by all who knew her as sur- 
passingly lovely in person and character. Her monument 
still remains with the touching tribute to her excellence : 
Placuit omnibus cui satis uni placuisse. 

Alas ! that no picture of that secluded mossy corner exists 
except in the memory of one or two who still remain. Mr. 
Emerson now rests by the side of the wife of his youth, 
which still endears the spot to those who loved him. The 
corner itself has been sacrificed to the enlargement of the 
cemetery on three sides. It was doomed to as short a space 
of existence as that of the dear little boy who was its first 
tenant. The owner of the adjacent farm cut down the 
beautiful tree for firewood. The town frowned upon his 
action, on the ground that he had no right to the tree, which, 
standing in the wall, partly belonged to the public. But it 
was gone and no steps that could be taken would replace it 
and so nothing was done about it. Captain Oxnard was so 
grieved at its loss that he removed the remains of his little 
son and the monument, to Mount Auburn. The pond dis- 
appeared in consequence of the drainage of the low ground 
where Chestnut street now runs. The picturesque rocks were 
removed to make room for buildings and all the fine trees 
around the pond were cut down. 

" Pierce Hall," a short distance east of the church, was 
built in 1824. The second floor was used as the Town Hall 
of the town. Meetings of various kinds were held in it and 
subsequently lyceum lectures. The first floor was a public 



23 

school room used only in the summer. It was an ill-lighted 
and gloomy room and its curriculum was of the simplest, in- 
cluding only " reading, writing and arithmetic." Some of the 
more public-spirited of Brookline's citizens aspired to have an 
elegant and attractive school in which their sons could be 
fitted for college. I believe Mr. Richard Sullivan was one of 
the most active in carrying out this scheme. A structure 
worthy of beautiful Brookline was the result. It was built in 
1820 and was modeled from a Greek temple, with Doric 
pillars, and was considered perfect as a work of art. It was 
commonly called the " Classical School." Well do I re- 
member going to an exhibition in that school when a very 
young child and can even now hear Mr. William Atkinson 
recite, "When I am dead no pageant train shall waste their 
sorrows o'er my bier," and my brother Willliam follow with 
Rob Roy's "You speak like a boy . . . who thinks the auld 
gnarled oak can be twisted as easily as the young sapling," 
into which speech he was said to have put a great deal of 
sarcasm for so young a boy and was much applauded. Also 
I went to an exhibition of the effects of exhilarating gas 
which was administered to the pupils by their master with 
various ludicrous effects. Most of the boys were pugnacious 
and wildly attacked the master or any one who happened to 
be near. One, named John Randall, lay down on the plat- 
form and spouted, " Roll on, thou deep and dark blue 
ocean, roll," in a sentimental manner. Ellery Channing, 
afterwards a poet, leaped in the most extraordinary manner 
like a grasshopper over the heads of the boys on the plat- 
form and frightened me sadly lest he should come down on 
me. 

The surroundings of this classic hall were lovely. Just 
behind it was the sweet spot since called " Brignal Banks," 
on the shore of the brook already described as the " New 
Lane" brook. Some time after, a Mr. Hubbard bought this 
schoolhouse and built directly behind it a boarding house and 
in front of it a wooden gymnasium, the first ever heard of in 
these regions. Years after, Dr. Shurtleff bought the house 
and used the gymnasium, which had been moved to the south 
of the house, for a stable. The dear old classical school be- 
came his drawing room. The change greatly detracted from 
the beauty of this gem of architecture as viewed from the 
street, but it was a fine drawing room. 



2 4 

The delightful social gatherings in those early days of the 
nineteenth century were different from anything now prevail- 
ing in any place known to me. Families met together, old 
and young. The circle comprising the Goddards, Heaths, 
Howes, Pennimans, Sumners, Searles, Dr. Wild's and other 
congenial families, were often invited to each other's houses, 
to spend evenings in music, dancing and friendly conversa- 
tion. As the Heaths were an especially musical family and 
the sons, Charles and Frederick, had fine voices, a musical 
treat was always expected at their house. The brothers often 
invited young men from Boston who were in the habit of 
singing in quartets, or single voices of especial excellence, to 
assist in the entertainment. The dancing was simple, con- 
sisting chiefly of what were called "cotillions" and contra- 
dances. Round dances had not then arrived on this side of 
the Atlantic. We had never heard of the waltz except as it 
was mentioned in Miss Edgeworth's novel, " Patronage." 
The hero, Godfrey Percy, who was fascinated by a beautiful 
girl, sees her engage in this new dance and immediately 
decides to steel his heart against so dangerous a syren and 
actually succeeds in his attempt. The first time I ever saw 
waltzing was at a dancing class mostly consisting of Miss 
Lucy Searle's scholars taught by the elder Papanti. The 
great charm of the parties in those days was their perfect 
simplicity. The elders enjoyed seeing the younger people 
dance and joined in the sport when they felt so inclined. Dr. 
Wild's dancing was with his whole soul. He flew around like 
a joyous boy, the steps being after his own fashion, but 
nobody criticized, each being intent on enjoying him or her- 
self and having a good time. These festivities closed by half 
past nine or ten, and the younger participants were as fresh 
and wide-awake at school the next day as if nothing out of 
the usual routine had happened the evening before. 

Miss Lydia Greene was an acknowledged leader in society. 
Her opinion as to all the elegancies and proprieties of life was 
consulted by her circle of friends. I find in Miss Susan 
Heath's journal that she and her sisters went on one occasion 
to ask Miss Greene what they were to " think " about some- 
thing they had seen in the papers. By position and example 
she was worthy of the consideration she received. She and 
her brother Simon lived in the house opposite the Heath 



25 

mansion, with their uncle, General Elliot, who was a brother 
of Mrs. Colonel Perkins. She was fond of young people and 
took great interest in the development of their minds and 
manners. We were all anxious to be approved by Miss 
Greene. 

Madam Babcock was an object lesson in real old-fashioned 
gentility. She lived in the house now occupied by Miss Julia 
Goddard. The place was exquisitely kept. A walk having 
beds of lovely flowers on each side went quite round the 
place and there were beautiful trees and shrubs near the 
house. Madam Babcock always drove to meeting in a coach, 
with her footman, John Green, standing on a shelf behind, 
holding tassels which came from the top to keep himself 
steady. He sprang down the moment the coach stopped in 
front of the church, opened the door, let down the steps with 
solemn gravity and assisted his mistress to alight. When I 
was sent with a message to her house I always saw her sitting 
in the bow chamber in state. After I had delivered it she 
would tap upon a panel in the wall near her chair and John 
Green would immediately enter, so quickly that I fancied he 
always stood with his ear close to that panel. His mistress 
would then send him to fetch a piece of delicious hard ginger- 
bread for my refreshment, and John was always despatched 
for a paper and string, and all that I had not eaten was put 
up for me to carry away for future use. 

A rare house for children's parties was Captain Glover's in 
Cottage street, where Mr. and Mrs. Shepley now live. A 
Saturday afternoon spent there was something worth remem- 
bering all these years. Captain Glover and his wife were 
fond of children and knew how to entertain them. There 
was generally a gentle horse that we could ride on round the 
walks, and a small flat-bottomed boat we could row in around 
a very diminutive pond, also a barn well filled with hay over 
which we were allowed to frolic as much as we pleased. Cap- 
tain Glover presented our brothers with a small fire-engine 
which had been used on board one of his vessels. The boys 
formed a fire brigade and were accustomed to parade on 
Saturday afternoons, clad in simple uniforms, their clothes 
being ornamented with scarlet flannel, offering to wash any 
windows needing their services, and feeling very grand and 
grown up. 



26 

May Day was always observed by the pupils of Miss Lucy 
Searle. It was a holiday and the scholars assembled on the 
Searle piazza provided with baskets containing their luncheon 
and together walked to some wood to spend the day. The 
favorite spot seemed to be a rocky pasture in Jamaica Plain 
then called Switzerland, but I remember one day spent in a 
summer house on the south shore of Jamaica Pond, and one, 
perhaps two, in Longwood. No grown person went with us 
and we were free to amuse ourselves as we liked. We wove 
a crown of flowers for our queen, who was voted into office 
as soon as we arrived on the spot chosen for our celebration. 
We picked great quantities of wild flowers, composed verses, 
such as they were, in honor of the queen, played simple 
games and never found the day too long. The fairy queen 
seemed to smile upon our pleasures. As I look back I re- 
member but one rainy May Day. 

The Walley family were popular neighbors. They lived on 
the spot where Mr. Stephen D. Bennett now resides. The 
place extended all over the land bounded by Cypress and 
Boylston streets, running behind the parsonage to the 
Sumner estate on the west. A beautiful brook ran through 
it. It had on Boylston street the charming grove before 
mentioned and on Walnut street a large garden with a sum- 
mer house and seats. The house was a picturesque object 
with evergreen trees so close to the piazza as to make it 
always cool and shady in summer. On the first landing of 
the principal staircase was a round window that overlooked a 
large hall which was the theatre of festivities of all kinds. 
Mr. Walley married a beautiful heiress from Martinique 
named Feroline Lalong. They had six sons and six daughters ; 
several of the latter inherited their mother's beauty and all 
were gay and pleasing. As Mrs. Walley was a Roman 
Catholic they were an important family in the church in Bos- 
ton, the clergy of which were their constant guests. Bishop, 
afterwards Cardinal, Cheverus was there frequently. A 
small room or closet was fitted up for an oratory for his use, 
where candles were burning day and night. That closet was 
a dream of my childhood. I am not positive that I ever saw 
the inside of it with my bodily eyes, but it stands in my re- 
membrance as clear a picture as any other in that old gallery. 
My father was very fond of Bishop Cheverus and learned 



27 

French in order to read many books recommended by him. 
When quite young I used to read Massillon to my father, 
learning to enjoy the charming style and spirit of his writ- 
ings. Mr. Walley built a small schoolhouse on the corner of 
Boylston and Cypress streets for the benefit of his children 
and those of his neighbors. Miss Elizabeth Peabody taught 
there, among others. Perfect health reigned in the Walley 
family and no doctor ever entered the house. Mr. Walley 
used to say that the way to treat children was to throw them 
into snow banks and let them frolic in them as much as they 
pleased. In those simple days microbes were unknown. I 
doubt whether they existed. They probably developed late 
in crowded and dirty city tenements, and their best extermi- 
nators are certainly fresh air, pure water and cleanliness. 

The Sullivan family lived on the spot since then and for a 
long time occupied by Mrs. Nathaniel Bowditch, and now 
covered with houses, thirteen in number, I believe, and 
Walnut street passes through it, ending at Dudley street. 
The Sullivans were a charming family. Mrs. Sullivan was 
one of the most beautiful and lovely human beings I ever saw, 
and her daughters were like her. Their great beauty and 
exquisite refinement could not be otherwise than a pride to 
the town so fortunate as to be their home. Mothers told 
their daughters to observe and copy their manners, but they 
might as well have asked them to imitate a rose or a violet. 
I have heard that one of them was the subject of Longfellow's 
lines in his poem "A Gleam of Sunshine:" 

"Thy dress was like the lilies, 
And thy heart as pure as they ; 
One of God's holy messengers 
Did walk with me that day." 

Mary, the youngest was the idol of my childhood. She 
died when I was seven years old. We both went to a little 
school taught by Miss Alice Sumner, where she was always 
sweet and kind to me. Though so many years have passed, 
I can see her standing at her gate to be sure that I was going 
safely home. 

I must confess that there is one spot in Brookline quite as 
beautiful as it was in Auld Lang Syne, and that is Jamaica 



28 

Pond and its surroundings. The charming walks and drives 
around it, the removal of commonplace houses, and the taste 
displayed in the planting of trees and shrubs, which will be 
finer every successive year, show what art can do to heighten 
the charms of nature. All this is due in a great measure to 
the genius of Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted and that of his 
pupil Mr. Charles Eliot, whose excellent taste and skill could 
make even a wilderness blossom. 

Mary W. Poor. 



BROOKLINE VILLAGE, 1865 to 1902 



From Notes of Martin Kingman, Esq. 



Interesting reminiscences of Brookline by Edward Atkin- 
son, Esq., Charles H. Stearns, and others have in times past 
been printed in the Brookline Chronicle, which have prompted 
me to note down my recollections of Brookline Village from 
1865 to the present time. 

It is my purpose to confine my recollections to Washington 
street from the Roxbury line to the corners of Washington, 
Cypress, and School streets. This is not intended as a full 
history, as I am not an historian, but in my own way is a 
narration of my remembrance of that locality. 

The construction of Riverdale Park occasioned the abandon- 
ment of Downer street, as it is remembered, to admit of 
a driveway to the Park, and May 8th, 1891, some thirty 
structures thereon were sold at public auction by Mr. 
McCormack for $11,000. They were mostly removed to new 
sites on the borders of Parker Hill, Pond avenue, and else- 
where, effecting a radical change in that locality. 

The actual beginning of the Village as it was, one may say, 
was at the old tavern which stood on the northeast corner 
of Brookline avenue and Washington street, known as the 
Punch Bowl, the second of the name in town, and an important 
hostelry before the advent of the railroad. It is said to have 
had large patronage, from other liquids than water for those 
who refreshed themselves at its bar. It was standing in 1865, 
I am informed, and then occupied for a dwelling, but was 
later demolished to make way for the works of the Brookline 
Gas Light Company, under the superintendence of Mr. Free- 
man Sherman. 

On the opposite side of Washington street was the Kimball 
farm, formerly Ward's farm. The house on the farm is still 
standing, though hidden from view of passers by a low block 
of stores in front, and has been used in recent years as a 
kindergarten school and day nursery for children. For many 
years that neighborhood was known as the "Punch Bowl 
Village." The gas company's plant, upon removal of the 

*A paper read before the Society December 17, 1902. 



30 

works to Brighton, was idle until the building on the corner 
was made into a bowling alley, and it is now again used for 
purposes of the company. 

Next to the gas company's office stands the Downer-Griggs 
house, which has had many owners and occupants, but is now 
a dilapidated, vacant wreck, a reminder of the past. The 
adjoining estate was that of Edward Devotion, who removed 
thither from Harvard street, and died in the old house recently 
demolished, in 1744. For many years this has been known as 
the Lemuel Foster estate, upon which now stands Nagle's 
blacksmith shop. On the corner of Washington and Pearl 
streets, next to the Foster estate, stands the paint shop 
occupied many years by Benjamin F. Baker, Esq., our late 
Town Clerk and fellow-townsman, and still in use by Mr. 
Daniel Hunt as a paint shop. Other buildings on the right, 
as one moves along, remain much as they were in 1865, one 
of them being where the late John McCormack had his tailor 
shop and kept the post-office in the fifties. 

The next building of importance is Lyceum Hall, built by 
the late Samuel A. Walker in the forties. Mr. Walker was 
a well-known real estate auctioneer in Brookline, whose 
poetic advertisements of real estate are probably remembered 
by older residents of the town. In its earlier days that hall 
was the scene of many a dance and festivity, but few of those 
who shared in them are left. Beth-horon Lodge of A. F. and 
A. M. held its meetings in the old hall from 1870 to the time 
of removal to the corner of Harvard and School streets. It 
was on and near this site, and northward to where the railroad 
now is, that the first Punch Bowl Tavern is said to have stood. 
Other old buildings stood in this vicinity in 1865, which were 
reminders of old bits of Portsmouth, Salem, and Marblehead. 
Near by was Whitney's Hotel, afterwards Darrah's, later and 
now Morlock's hotel, bakery, and store. Further on towards 
the railroad was and still is Russell's Block, in which Marshall 
Russell, the owner, carried on his grocery in 1865. He was 
succeeded by Thomas T. Robinson, Grafton Richards, and 
now by Fay in the dry goods line. Brown Brothers, provision 
dealers, began business in that block some thirty years ago, 
and that business is continued by Colby Brown, son of 
Thomas S. Brown. In that block also is the kitchen-ware 
shop of Mr. Levien, while the floors above are occupied as 
tenements. 



3i 

Farther on the decline towards the railroad was the dry- 
goods and shoe store of Mrs. Dorothy, now the prooerty of 
Peter Keiser, where he is located as a barber, he being the 
oldest established barber in the town. Near Mrs. Dorothy's 
stood a small wooden building belonging to Adam Halfenstein 
and occupied by him as a tailor shop, called "The Arcade." 
It was later moved to White place, and on its site at the 
corner of Fay place, was built Halfenstein's brick block, prior 
to widening the bridge and street in 1886. In one store of 
that block is the boot and shoe store of Edward McAvoy, and 
in the other a grocery which has had several proprietors, one 
having been Mr. Halfenstein's son. On the site of the 
Boynton brick block stood an old wooden building which had 
several owners, the last before its sale to Boynton, if memory 
serves me, being Mrs. Maloney. In the basement of that 
house, early in the sixties, Frederick A. and Theodore F. 
Corey opened a provision store, or meat market, said to have 
been the first of its kind in the town. Later L. M. Perry- 
carried on his furniture and upholstery in that building, and 
J. H. Grush, up a flight of steps, had his barber shop and 
newspaper stand. Mr. Grush was a constable and an ardent 
temperance man, who, when not cutting hair or selling papers, 
kept his eye open to seize upon those who indulged too 
deeply in "tangle foot " and escort them to the lock-up in the 
basement of the old Town Hall. 

Boynton's Block was erected after the bridge and street 
widening upon the site of the Mahony house, and the dry- 
goods store in it, the largest in town, is now conducted by 
George F. Boynton & Co. George F. Boynton began busi- 
ness where Levien's store now is, I think, the firm name then 
being Martin & Boynton. After Mr. Martin's retirement the 
firm's name was changed to Boynton Brothers. Mr. A. M. 
Defriez, I remember, was in the dry goods business farther 
down the street. In the old days there was a row of wooden 
posts on the south side of the railroad tracks to prevent teams 
from driving across. 

Let us now return to the Kimball farm on the west side of 
Washington street and note some of the changes that have 
occurred upon it and that side of the street since 1865. It was 
an open cultivated farm at that date, but is now intersected 
with streets and covered with dwellings. The old Barnard 



32 

house, then occupied by Osavius Verney, whose wife was a 
Barnard, was sold some years since to Clement K. Fay, Esq., 
and was removed. John F. Fleming, the electrician, recently 
built upon the site a one-story wooden building, and removed 
thither from Harvard square. Farther on is a high board 
fence facing the street, on which are posted, in flaming colors, 
theater and other bills. 

On the site of the old omnibus stables are Quinlan's and 
Driscoll's stables, the former of wood and the latter of brick, 
erected in the lifetime of the late James Driscoll, contractor, 
and now occupied by his son James, who succeeded to his 
business. 

Between the Driscoll stable and Morss avenue stand several 
buildings, one of which is of brick of imposing appearance, 
built by the late Jeremiah Guilfoye a few years ago as an 
apartment house, with stores on the ground floor. On the 
site of the old Brookline House, kept by Aaron Whitney, now 
stands the picturesque office of the Jordan Coal Co. Next, 
and in the rear of the street, are the old station and stables 
of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, later the West 
End Street Railway Company, and now used as a riding 
academy. Here formerly stood the home of Miss Harriet 
Woods, writer of Brookline " Historical Sketches," a Brook- 
line school teacher, and a writer of literary taste and ability. 

Whyte's Block, built since 1865, harmonizes with old Brook- 
line Village, having its row of stores, news stands, fruit and 
cigar shops, Chinese laundries, cobbler shops, etc. Some 
may remember, as does the writer, when Peter Keiser, the 
barber, had his shop in this block, at the beginning of his 
career in town, and who later moved to his shop opposite. 
There, too, Barthelmes continued work as a barber until his 
removal to the corner of Harvard street and Aspinwall avenue. 
The engine and hose company buildings of the fire depart- 
ment were built about 1870, at the time water was introduced 
into the town from Charles River. On the corner beyond 
stood the shop, then as now, of the "Village Blacksmith," 
Royal Woodward, an honest man and a right good fellow, 
who died in 1892. His successor, P. J. Burns, who was with 
Mr. Woodward, continues the business at the old stand. 
Upon the other corner of High street is the carriage shop of 
Mr. Michael W. Quinlan, known and respected far and near 
for good and faithful work. 



33 

Before crossing the street let us consider some of the 
changes that have taken place in the bridge, street, and street- 
car travel. The greatest of all improvements has been the 
abolition of the liquor saloons that formerly cursed the lower 
village. The old car station was abandoned after the intro- 
duction of electric cars, and the new waiting room opened in 
Whyte's Block. Many may remember the veteran horse-car 
driver, Mr. William H. Bellows, whose age and infirmities 
caused him to resign his position after thirty-one years' 
service, in which he had traveled upon his car 570,175 miles, 
or more than twenty-two times the circumference of the earth, 
averaging but a few weeks off duty in all those years from 
illness or vacation. He survived but a few years after retire- 
ment, and his funeral car was a street-railway carriage 
decorated with flowers, and followed to his last resting place 
by a large number of street-railway employees. In the earlier 
years of this sketch the horse cars were drawn over the 
bridge every half-hour, to the corners of Washington and 
School streets and corners of Harvard and Washington 
streets, alternately. When interrupted with snow each car 
required four horses, and the time was lengthened to an hour 
each trip. The fares were ten cents each, or twelve coupon 
tickets for a dollar. To those who have seen the photographic 
views of the village as it appeared in 1865, looking from this 
point over the railroad bridge to Harvard square, this sketch 
will appear more intelligible. And those who have read 
" Brookline, a Favored Town," with its historical sketches 
and views, will better appreciate this feeble attempt of mine. 

Across Boylston street from Whyte's Block and on the 
corner stands Guild's Block, of brick, in which was Guild's 
grocery store, kept by him for many years and until a few 
years before his death, in 1890, when he was succeeded by 
Francis H. Bacon, who died in 1898, when the business passed 
into the hands of the present proprietors, T. F. McMahon 
& Co. 

Around the corner on Washington street is the bakery and 
bread store of Miss Julia Hayes, who has occupied her present 
place of business for the past thirty years or more, and is well 
known for her honesty, uprightness, and fair dealing. In that 
building in the first few years of this sketch, until his death in 
1872, was Benjamin H. Crosby in the fish business, who was 



34 

succeeded by George P. Johnson in the same line, the present 
occupant. In that block through all the years of this sketch 
has been the sign of Horace James, mason and contractor, a 
Selectman of the town for thirty-eight years, an honored man, 
and one confided in, both in official and business life. Up two 
flights of stairs, one winds his way to Goddard Hall, named 
for the late venerable Deacon Abijah W. Goddard, the apostle 
of temperance in the town. The upper story of this building 
was added by Mr. Guild in the late sixties for occupation of 
the Good Templars. The Bethany Sunday-school had its 
beginning in that hall, and in it the Presbyterian Church 
worshiped until the completion of their church on Prospect 
street. In that block, too, the Sullivans, plumbers, until 
recently had their office. 

Next to the railroad and bridge is the old Webber house 
with its two stories or more of basement below the bridge, 
reminding one of an iceberg floating with its smallest part 
above water. In former days it reminded one somewhat of 
the old Willey House, at the entrance to the Crawford Notch 
in the White Mountains. This old house has been occupied 
by various parties, at one time by the late James H. Murphy, 
the well-known shoemaker, who later located across the bridge 
at the corner of White place. He died in 1899. 

The bridge at the time this narrative begins had two arches, 
one for the passage of trains and the other for entrance to 
White place. To enter White place from the bridge one 
descended a flight of wooden steps on the easterly side by 
the retaining wall, and thence through a driveway underneath 
leading from the station ; but if by carriage, one went on to 
the beginning of the decline and down to the driveway under 
the bridge. The widening of the bridge in 1886 changed all 
this, making the entrance to White place directly from the 
bridge, with Halfenstein's tailor shop facing the street. 
Proceeding on from the bridge, on the left, we find the old 
frame structure formerly known as " Mechanics' Block," but 
now called "Dun-Edin," for the old name of Edinburgh, 
Scotland, the native place of its former owner, Mr. John 
Panter. Different parties have occupied this building in the 
past, among them White, Mayo, and Paine, succeeded by 
Ruggles, Mayo, and Paine, and Mayo & Paine, plumbers. 
Mr. Henry K. Paine, a member of those firms, removed to a 



35 

store on the east side of Harvard Square. Thomas Mahon, 
the plumber, has for a series of years had an office in that 
building, also Mr. Flatley and others. 

The next place of prominence is the paint shop of the late 
James B. Hand, who died in 1900, leaving the establishment 
and business to his sons. 

The brick building of Mr. Reuben A. Chace next claims 
attention. Mr. Chace was also a prominent house painter in 
town for many years, retiring a few years ago, and is still hale 
and hearty. For awhile after his retirement his shop was 
occupied as a provision store, and later by the Johnson 
Fish Co., and at this writing by James H. Boody, painter, who 
was formerly a foreman for Mr. Chace. 

Next in order is the store of Kenrick Brothers, established 
by their father, Mr. Alfred Kenrick, many years ago, in the 
tin, plumbing, and stove business. Mr. Kenrick, senior, died 
in 1884. He was a public-spirited man, and devoted much 
time to the town's welfare without seeking office. He was 
also devoted to temperance work, and was a good citizen. 
His sons continue the business, having added to it from time 
to time until, as the oldest of its kind in town, it is in its way 
a model establishment. At the time the bridge was widened 
their store was enlarged, a story added and the structure 
modernized. 

The drug store of George W. Bird, who came to town in 
1850, next claims our attention. He continued in business 
until July, 1886, when he was injured by a runaway horse, 
causing him to give up business, and probably hastened his 
death, which occurred in 1895. That line of business has been 
carried on at the old stand since the retirement of Mr. Bird by 
Young & Brown, now in the fine new brick block owned by 
the Bird estate, called "The Algonquin." Another store in 
that block is now occupied by Frederick E. Palmer, florist. 

Let us now cross the street to the railroad station as it was 
in 1865, with its mourning drapery for the assassination of 
Abraham Lincoln. It was a long wooden building for pas- 
sengers and store-house for freight, antiquated, but in harmony 
with its surroundings at that period. The Brookline branch 
of the Boston & Worcester Railroad ended at the Brookline 
station. Beyond it was the Boston, Hartford & Erie and Air 
line, now the Newton Circuit of the Boston & Albany. Hon. 



36 

Ginery Twichell was president of the Boston & Worcester 
road. Cyrus W. Ruggles was station-master and postmaster, 
the post-office being located in the depot. There was a bell 
on the depot building that was rung five minutes before the 
departure of trains for Boston to warn passengers to be on 
hand. Abiel Smith, a lame man, attended the switches and 
had carriages in waiting near the station for the accommo- 
dation of passengers. 

John Gibson, a popular conductor on the road, is 
remembered ; also Andrew Winslow, the engineer, Mr. 
Andrews, the conductor, and Ginery Twichell Davis, the 
engineer, Moses Eastman, conductor, and James Alger, engi- 
neer. Everybody who rode on the train knew Moses East- 
man, the genial conductor. We knew him when a driver on 
the Metropolitan horse cars, before the time when this sketch 
began, afterwards conductor on street cars, as brakeman on 
the Brookline Branch Railroad, and then as conductor, in 
which latter position he remained until his death in 1876. 
He was affable, kind, and known to all who traveled on the 
road and was familiarly called "Moses." His wife was 
Emeline C. Tolman, a young lady born and educated in Brook- 
line, who recently read a paper before the Brookline Histor- 
ical Society on " Muddy River or Colonial Brookline." 

The old depot was replaced by the present one at the time 
of the bridge widening and moved farther east, and the post- 
office was transferred to its present locality in Harvard 
Square. The grade of Washington street below the Square 
was raised to conform to the height of the new bridge and an 
incline was constructed from the same to the new depot. 
These improvements made changes in and about the bridge 
and Square. The passage under the bridge to White place 
was filled, and the retaining wall on the easterly side of the 
old bridge was hidden from view by the widening and is now 
remembered only by the older portions of the community. 
Between the old depot and Andem place until some time in the 
late sixties or in the early seventies, was an open pasture, which 
is now covered with brick buildings. Of the three blocks in 
that row, the two upper were first built. In the lower block 
of Colonnade Row, next the station, in 1872, George F. Joyce 
& Co., began their career in Brookline. Mr. Joyce shortly 
after moved to Panter's Building, owned by John Panter, 



37 

owner of the "Colonnade." Mr. George E. Everett, his 
partner, retired from the firm and he and Mr. Nash carried on 
the grocery business for awhile at the corner, after which 
Nelson Brothers opened their store at that place. The hotel 
(landlord Perkins) had the next entrance and a dining room, 
which was later added to Nelson Brothers' store. 

I can only recall a part of those who have been located in 
stores of these buildings. Edwin F. Crosby, the plumber, has 
occupied one for many years. There were also others who 
were shoe dealers, Faxon, Chaplin, Meggett, Fegan, and lastly 
McElroy Brothers. H. Frank Rice took a store in the center 
block soon after its completion and kept on sale a line of 
fancy goods, stationery, magazines, etc. He was followed in 
that store by Wing & Arthur, proprietors and publishers of 
the Brookline Chronicle, and then by Mr. Wing alone. Then 
followed John T. O'Day, who succeeded Mr. Grush in news- 
paper business in the Mahony house across the railroad. He 
extended the paper business in town, his sister being his 
assistant, and after his inability she conducted the business. 

The O'Day's were succeeded by Miss Esther Pratt, after- 
wards Mrs. Cilley, who displayed business tact and extended 
that line of business, and continued therein for many years. 
She was succeeded by William D. Paine, who has farther 
extended the business and lately moved into larger and more 
convenient quarters next the drug store at the corner of 
Andem place. 

In the middle block in the early seventies, George Turnbull, 
the tailor, was located, his being the first tailoring estab- 
lishment of the kind in town. Edward W. Packard, previously 
of Burt & Packard, was located in this block during the 
eighties. Walter Martin, formerly of the firm of Martin & 
Boynton, carried on the dry goods business in a store of this 
block for a short time, and was succeeded by Charles F. Lamb 
for some years, and then the business was continued for a 
period by George Defriez. 

The Brookline Savings Bank was located in this block for 
awhile. E. E. Pierce, the baker and caterer, is now and has 
been located in the block for some years. On the completion 
of the upper block in the row, Charles Ladd opened a family 
drug store therein. Frank A. Newell occupied the corner 
store as a jeweler and silversmith, after which it was occupied 



38 

by Charles D. Austin as a hardware store, then by George E. 
Everett in the same line, until the stock was sold and moved 
across the Square to the St. Andrew Building, and the 
business was there continued by Thomas J. Murray. 
William Butler next occupied the corner store of the block as 
a druggist ; of more recent date others have occupied it. That 
has been a prominent place of business. 

The Catholic Church was in Andem place until the erection 
of their new church on the corner of Harvard street and 
Linden place in 1882, and its congregation passed the corner 
going to and from the same. Rev. J. M. Finotti, the pastor, 
and his brother Chevalier G. M. Finotti, Vice-Consul for Italy, 
residents of the town, are well and favorably remembered 
by the older people. Where Rooney's shoe store now is, in 
1865 the building was a boarding house k.ept by Mrs. Mecuen. 
Mr. James Rooney had it raised up one story and located his 
store in the lower part, he removing thither from Panter's 
Building. Mr. Rooney learned his trade of shoemaker in the 
town, of Mr. Tolman ; he was a thrifty man and died respected 
in 1899. His son James C. Rooney continued the business 
after his father's death. In the other store in that building 
Mayo & Paine carried on business, removing thence from 
across the Square. For many years the firm, with changes in 
its name to Paine Brothers, (Mr. Isaac Paine, brother of 
Henry K. Paine, being taken in when Mr. Mayo went out,) 
have done business there. Mr James Rooney erected the 
brick block on the corner of the Square and Harrison place, 
now Kent street, about 1880, and after that the one-story 
building between it and Paine's store. 

In the one-story building Henry Collins, provision dealer, 
was located until recently, when he was succeeded by Horace 
E. Smith, who was many years employed by Mr. Collins. In 
the brick block the late Alfred A. Cheney, watchmaker 
and jeweler, carried on business until his death in 1891. He 
first established himself in town, below the bridge, in 1862. 
After Mr. Cheney's death Charles W. Morse succeeded to 
the place and business, removing thither from the St. Andrew 
Building, where he had been located some years. The store 
on the corner of Harvard Square and Plarrison place, now 
Kent street, was first occupied by a Mr. Hamilton in the dry 
goods business, and afterwards until the present time by 



39 

Clarence A. Delano in the same line of business, in which he 
has been successful. 

In Panter's Building between Harvard and Washington 
street facing Harvard Square, was located James Rooney in 
the boot and shoe business until his removal already spoken 
of. In the other store of the building Mrs. Rath A. West 
kept a millinery establishment. She afterwards located in 
the building sold to Mr. Goldsmith, and by his heirs to the 
Brookline Savings Bank. After that she kept the boarding 
house on Kent street in the rear of the National Bank, then 
built a house on Stearns road where she resided several years, 
then removed to and died at the house of her daughter in 
Philadelphia in 1896. 

In the store of the second floor of Panter's building E. S. 
Ritchie & Sons carried on the manufacture of philosophical 
instruments and marine spirit compasses. They removed 
from that locality in the seventies to their present place of 
business on Cypress street. Near that time the property 
was purchased by Mr. George F. Joyce, upon the ground floor 
of which he carried on the grocery business. After the 
removal of the Ritchies, the second story was and has been 
used by the Chronicle printing establishment and other 
smaller concerns. The attic was finished into a hall for 
concerts, dances and lodge purposes. On the lower floor on 
Harvard street, where the Chronicle office now is, was for 
years the drug store of Warren G. Currier. On the Harvard 
street corner is and has been since Mr. Joyce gave up business, 
the grocery of Frank F. Seamans, formerly with his brother 
James M., on the corner of Harvard square and Davis avenue. 
In the other half of the front, Collins & Dyer carried on the 
provision business, they being, except Brown Brothers, the 
oldest in that line in town. Collins & Dyer dissolved, Mr. 
Dyer retaining the store, and Mr. Collins, as we have already 
seen, opened in Rooney's one-story building on the east side 
of the Square. 

The one-story building between Joyce's Building and the 
first Post Office was built in the seventies, and has been 
occupied by John Thompson and his son Nelson, in the 
furniture and upholstery business, to the present time. 
Where the post-office now is was another grocery, in 1865 or 
thereabouts carried on by Oliver and John E. Cousens, the 



40 

former now in Maine and the latter now the well known coal 
dealer. After they gave up, the business was continued by 
Hunting and Larnard. Next, the place was used as a post- 
office when that was moved up from the railroad station. 
Cyrus W. Ruggles continued as postmaster until succeeded 
by the present superintendent, Mr. I. M. Fogerty. Over the 
post-office have resided Mr. George F. Joyce and others. 

In looking down toward the bridge from Harvard Square one 
is made aware of the changes that have taken place in that 
locality since 1865, not only in the buildings, but in the persons 
that have occupied them. A few of the former are left, but the 
great majority are gone to other places, or to their final homes. 
One realizes by the review that the business movement has 
steadily been northward. He would also be reminded of the 
Brookline Cornet Band which played in and about the Square 
in the sixties and early seventies. Composing it were Henry 
Corey, Henry Collins Moses Jones, A. A. Cheney, Charles 
and William Trowbridge, Watts H. Bowker, Eugene E. 
Morse, and possibly others not now called to mind. Mr. 
Morse was the junior member and drummer boy. Mr. 
Cheney was instrumental in having flags displayed in and 
about the Square on patriotic occasions. For reasons not 
now known the Band played it last tune with its usual vigor, 
and then went out of existence. 

Concrete sidewalks, brick-paved squares, electric railways, 
steam fire-engines, electric fire and police alarms, water 
hydrants and drinking fountains, all have been introduced 
with other improvements into the town since 1865. The 
bridge, Square, and Harvard and Washington streets have 
been widened; and Station street, Kent street and Davis 
avenue, leading into the Square, have been laid out and 
widened, giving to the locality a changed and improved aspect. 

The building west of the post-office, known as the Savings 
Bank building until the bank removed to its new quarters 
farther up the street, has been occupied for offices by the 
Suburban newspaper, telegraph, real estate, jewelers, and 
tobacconist shops. The Panter estate adjoining, now owned 
and occupied by other parties, retains its rural features, trees, 
shrubbery and lawn, with which its former owner tastefully 
arranged it. Caledonia Cottage has been occupied for many 
years by Dr. Martha G. Champlin, and the other house on the 



41 

lot by Mr. Woodberry, by the Assessors of the town, and by 
Mr. Riley of the Water Board. Next to the Panter estate is 
the furniture store of Robart Brothers, in the front lawn of 
the house built by Mr. Holbrook, a carpenter, who built the 
First Parish Church in 1848, and afterwards owned and 
occupied by Mr. Smith's son-in-law. In that house have 
resided Lyman B. Brooks, Dr. S. W. Sanford (who died there 
in 1875), and Dr. Ira B. Cushing. It is now owned and 
occupied by Mr. Robart. 

On Holden street, in the rear of Robart's, is the house 
owned and occupied by Benjamin F. Hobart, until his removal 
to Boston in the seventies. Mr. Hobart was the omnibus 
driver between Brookline and Boston at the opening of the 
Brookline Branch Railroad, when he was made conductor on 
the Boston & Worcester railroad and later station-master at 
Boston until his death. Mr. Grafton W. Stone, the stable 
keeper, was the next occupant of the house until his death in 
1879, when it was purchased by our townsman Willard Y. 
Gross, who still occupies it. Next to that house and near the 
Baptist Church is and has been the residence for many years 
of Reuben A. Chace, before mentioned. 

The Town Hall in 1865, which stood upon the site of the 
present hall, afterwards moved across Prospect street and 
occupied as a Police Court and Police Station, and recently 
torn down, had been built twenty years, and the increase of 
the town had outgrown it. Within it was the Public Library 
with J. Emory Hoar, Librarian, and in it also was held the 
Police Court, presided over by Bradford Kingman, Esq. 
Benjamin F. Baker, Esq., was Town Clerk in that hall for 
twenty years or more of its existence and continued to be in 
the new hall to the time of his death in 1898. Mr. Moses 
Withington, whose memory is yet cherished, was Town Treas- 
urer for many years in both the old and new halls, until 
succeeded by the present Treasurer, Mr. George H. 
Worthley. Mr. Withington died in 1891, leaving a name a 
synonym of honesty. Mr. James Bartlett, for so many years 
a Selectman and chairman of that board during the life of 
the old hall, ought not to be forgotten in a sketch of this kind. 
Nor should the town meetings held in the old hall. They were 
battles fought between giants of those days, especially those 
in regard to annexation and the introduction of water into 
the town. 



4 2 

The chief speakers in those contests were Aspinwall, Ben- 
ton, Griggs, Homer, Goddard, Humphrey, Carnes, Spencer, 
McCormack, Twichell and Wellman, all passed away ; and 
Bowditch, Atkinson and Chandler, who still remain. 

The present Town Hall was dedicated with imposing cere- 
mony on Washington's Birthday, 1873, with an address by 
Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D. It is an imposing structure 
in its external appearance, but in other features a failure, 
though large and liberal appropriations were made to insure 
its success. From the first it was found that all else had 
been sacrificed to the grand hall, the acoustic properties of 
which have never been satisfactory, though many thousands 
of dollars have been spent trying to improve them. The lack 
of capacity in the building for the offices of the town was 
soon known and felt and it was only by additions and large 
expenditures recently made that those defects in a measure 
have been remedied. 

On the Fourth of July, 1876, the centennial anniversary of 
the Republic was duly celebrated in the Town Hall by vote of 
the town, in which Wendell Phillips delivered an oration, and 
the ceremony of planting anniversary trees in front of the 
Hall was carried out under guidance and direction of William 
I. Bowditch, Esq., the then chairman of the Board of Select- 
men. After their planting, the school children of the town 
who had taken part in the exercises in the hall, marched 
around the trees, led by the chairman of the Selectmen, 
shown the trees and bade to remember that they were planted 
on July 4th, 1876, the hundredth anniversary of American 
independence. 

The town since 1865 has increased from 4,000 to 22,000 
people, and where it once had but a Board of Selectmen, 
Assessors and School Committee, it now has in addition a 
Water Board, a Town Engineer, Superintendent of Streets, 
Superintendent of Wires, Building Inspector, and other 
appointees, and a police force and fire department in pro- 
portion. Its old Chief of Police with nine patrolmen would 
make a sorry show in the Brookline of today. And yet, with 
all the changes that have taken place, some of them for the 
better, and others we may wish had not occurred, Brookline 
is acknowledged to be a favored town and the one most 
desirable for residence to be found in New England, if not in 
the land. 



43 

Returning to the west side of Washington street to the 
St. Andrew Building, built by John Panter on land purchased 
by him of Benjamin B. Davis, with lands on which stand 
"Davis Mansion" and the " McLeod," we will consider the 
changes as we move northward. There was a noble elm 
standing there and the old building that stood there gave way 
to the widening of Washington place which changed its name 
to Davis avenue. The old building was occupied by Collins 
& Dyer in the provision business at the beginning of Dyer's 
business career in the town. In that building, also, John 
Thompson began his furniture business, also E. A. Walleston, 
gas-fitter. The St. Andrew building took the place of the 
wooden building where now are Felix R. King's grocery and 
Charles E. Schmalz's barber shop. Until within a few years, 
E. F. Allen, the gas-fitter, had his shop and office in that 
building. His former place of business is now a fruit store. 
August Vogel, the caterer, commenced business in town in 
that block and there continued until he removed to Harvard 
street, opposite the Baptist church. Another caterer and ice 
cream dealer was located there before Mr. Vogel's time, Mr. 
Hankey. 

On the corner of Washington place, now Davis avenue, 
and Washington street, is the oldest grocery in town, James 
M. Seamans & Co., who began business in 1848 below the 
bridge. In 1865 and for some years after, their store was a 
two-story wooden building, which gave way to the present 
brick block of four stories, built in 1889, their business occu- 
pying the ground floor and cellar. The successor of the firm 
is Manning Seamans, son of James M., who was brought up 
in the business with his father. 

The building next in order with some alterations, is the 
same as in 1864, and was occupied by Martin Kingman, dry 
goods dealer. Mr. Kingman, in 1865, succeeded Edwin Field, 
the oldest dry goods merchant in town, who carried on busi- 
ness some eighteen years prior to that date in a small store 
in the lower story of Lyceum Hall. Mr. Field on leaving 
Brookline made his home in Newtonville, where he died in 
1 891. Mr. Kingman continued in business in that store until 
1875, when he sold out to his assistant, Miss Elizabeth M. 
Swift, who continued the business for some years, but owing 
to close competition and failing health, retired and removed 



44 

to Dansville, N. Y., where she died in 1897. The other part 
of the store has been occupied by different parties since Miss 
Swift's retirement and is now the office of Steverman & Gib- 
bons, electricians, and the other half by Murray & Small, 
plumbers. The building is now owned by Manning Seamans. 

Next to Kingman's store were the fine, terraced grounds 
with shrubs, shade and fruit trees fronting Washington street 
and also Washington place, with the old mansion house 
erected early in the century by Mr. Seth Thayer, whose wife 
was sister to Benjamin B. Davis, Esq. In that house Mrs. 
Eliza R. Fitts kept a girls' boarding school. After Mrs. 
Fitts gave up her school, the house was occupied for some 
years by Moses Eastman, conductor on the railroad, whose 
wife carried it on as a boarding house. 

The beautiful rural aspect of the place was changed in the 
early seventies by the sale of the Washington street front 
and the erection thereon of buildings — changes that were 
perhaps inevitable but lamentable. Warren G. Currier, the 
druggist, in Panter's Building, Harvard street side, bought a 
lot, built the brick building now standing for a store and 
dwelling, into which he moved when completed. Mr. Currier, 
next to George W. Bird, was the most prominent and well 
known druggist of the town. His " Sunday School Class," 
so called, formed in the former store, followed him to the 
new location. It was a voluntary association of neighbors 
who met together to spend their evenings and leisure time, 
the life members of which were John Dustin, Justin Jones, 
Eben Morse, Thomas Pettingill and others, all of whom have 
passed away, as well as Mr. Currier, who died in 1891. The 
store has been sold to Mr. Kerr and has since been occupied 
by Metcalf Co., and other druggists, and at this writing is 
the temporary quarters of the Brookline National Bank during 
changes in its new building. Next to what was Currier's 
store is " The Reubens," a brick block built and owned by 
Reuben A. Chace on land formerly of the Seth Thayer 
estate. In it the Brookline National Bank first had its 
quarters. Farther on, in 1865, were Mr. Panter's and Mr. 
Nathaniel Lyford's shops, carpenters and builders, both of 
whom have passed away. The places were later taken by 
younger men who had been in their employ, such as Davis 
Waterman, Willard H. Goodwin and others. Goodwin & 
Waterman were for some years together in business in the 



45 

seventies, then Goodwin carried on business alone, in the 
place later occupied by Lincoln I. Leighton, who afterwards 
moved farther up the street, making good the statement that 
the moves are all up street. Frank D. Field, of Field, Cope- 
land & Crocker, who has had his field of operations in this 
locality for the past thirty years, should not be forgotten. In 
this section were located Harrison & Boody, and William 
I. Morrison, painters ; but the veteran of the locality today is 
John Koch, the upholsterer and screen manufacturer. 

A little farther on is the Goodspeed stable, large, well kept 
and a model. In the sixties this was a wooden building, the 
livery in it being carried on by Henry Whitney, then by Eben 
Morse, by Bowler & Metcalf, by Grafton W. Stone, and at the 
present time by Goodspeed. Next to the stable is the Robert 
S. Davis house, a landmark on the street and former home of 
that well-known book publisher. This house, except in 
tenants and color, has remained unchanged since 1865. 

The brick block of dwellings next in line, built early in the 
seventies was an addition to the appearance of the street. 
Madam Nordica and Robert Treat Paine, the astronomer, 
resided for awhile in this block. It has been the office and 
home of Drs. Wesselhoeft, Cushing, Defriez, and Shirley C. 
Ingraham, dentist, who is the owner of the larger part of the 
block. 

Next to this block is the picturesque one-story wooden 
building built a few years since by French & Bryant, civil 
engineers, and occupied as their office. 

On the corner of Thayer street, formerly Thayer place, 
stands the cottage house formerly the home of Dr. Edward 
A. Wilde, who fought in the War of the Rebellion, lost an 
arm and was made a brigadier-general for bravery. In 1865, 
Jacob Palmer and family occupied it. Prior to 1870, Mr. 
Joshua Conant and family occupied the house and after his 
death, Nathaniel his son, continued some years its occupant. 
Since then it has been rented to Dr. F. F. Whittier, and now 
by Simon Daley. Other citizens of the town may remember 
the stately elm which stood at the corner of Thayer place, 
now Thayer street, and which was taken down at the time 
the place was widened and made a street, about 1881. Down 
that place was a fine view to the iron gate entrance to the 
estate of the late E. C. Emerson, the grounds now intersected 
by Waverly and Emerson streets. 



4 6 

Oa the northerly side of Washington and westerly side of 
Prospect streets stood the old Town Hall and three dwellings, 
all demolished within a few years, the three latter to make 
way for the new Court House and Police Station. Next are 
Chase's express stable and the dwellings of Messrs. Chase 
and Collins erected in the late sixties or early seventies. The 
ground on which those buildings stood was the property of 
Mr. Timothy Leeds, whose house stood there for many years, 
occupied after his time by the late Benjamin F. Baker, Esq., 
and was moved from thence to Pearl street about 1868, where 
it is still standing. 

There was a high hill back from the street which was 
lowered, and on it was built in 1869 the present Public 
Library building, which has since received two or more addi- 
tions. John E. Hoar continued Librarian in the new build- 
ing until 1 87 1 and was succeeded by Miss Mary A. Bean for 
twenty-two years, or until her death in 1893. The vacancy 
caused by Miss Bean's death was filled by the election of Mr. 
Charles K. Bolton, who resigned in 1898 and was succeeded 
by Mr. Hiller C. Wellman, who resigned in May last, to be 
succeeded by the present incumbent, Miss Louisa M. 
Hooper. 

Adjoining the Public Library grounds is the John Gibbs 
estate, in appearance much the same as it was in 1865 and 
now occupied by his widow, he having died in 1892. 

Upon the corner of Washington and School streets, now a 
part of the Gibbs estate, stood a small wooden building, long 
since removed, in which Charles W. Batchelder had a provi- 
sion store and the Brookline Savings Bank first opened for 
business in 1 87 1, with Edward Atkinson, Esq., as president 
and the late Robert S. Littell as treasurer. In the second 
story Mr. Shields had his shop for the manufacture of anglers' 
supplies. 

Let us now return to the corner of Thayer and Washing- 
ton streets to the house owned and occupied by Mr. Martin 
Kingman, who has there resided since 1866. 

Adjoining Mr. Kingman's estate was then the fire depart- 
ment of the town, in two old wooden structures in which 
were housed the Good Intent hose company and the Brookline 
engine, the "Tub," so called, which was drawn to and from 
fires by fifty or so volunteers, by ropes, and worked by hand. 
An alarm of fire was made by ringing the church bells, which 



47 

caused the volunteers to assemble and drag away the old 
"Tub," follow by a concourse of boys and citizens. In 1871, 
the wooden buildings were removed and the present brick 
structure erected, and upon the introduction of Charles River 
water, the old " Tub " gave place to a steam fire-engine. 

Next to the engine-house are the shop and houses of the O. 
B. Delano estate. Mr. Oliver B. Delano established himself 
herein 1866 and built his house some two years thereafter. 
He was one of Brookline's older carpenters, and a respectable 
citizen, who died in 1893. Some of those who were journey- 
men in his employ were George F. Johnson, Osavius Verney, 
and Willard Y. Gross. His sons still carry on the business 
he established. 

Between Delano's and the Heath estate was vacant land, 
except the Charles L. Palmer house with carriage shop in 
rear. Mr. Palmer died in 1888 and the property is now owned 
by Mr. Boody. 

Jonathan D. Long built his house next to the Palmer 
estate now owned by Robert Patterson, in the early eighties, 
moving to the locality from White place. Mr. Long was a 
carpenter and in the latter part of his life sexton of the 
Baptist church. He died in 1889. The front ground floor 
of the Patterson house has been changed into offices for W. 
D. Morrison, painter, and Field, Copeland & Crocker, carpen- 
ters, they having work-shops in the rear. Adjoining the 
Patterson estate is the house formerly occupied by Mr. Free- 
man Sherman, superintendent of the Gas Company's works in 
the lower village until his removal from town. For many 
years thereafter it was owned and occupied by Bradford 
Kingman and now by George Delano. We next come to the 
corner of Goodwin place, on which stands the handsome and 
convenient Brookline Savings Bank building recently built of 
stone. Down the place are the residences of Miss Whyteand 
Mr. Goodwin. On the other corner of the place is the resi- 
dence of Mr. David H. Daniels, for many years principal of 
the Pierce Grammar School, later Superintendent of Schools, 
who has been retired since 1890. This house was built by 
Bradford Kingman, and was his residence prior to its acquisi- 
tion by Mr. Daniels. 

Mr. Kingman, beside being a lawyer, trial justice and 
historian, was prior to the advent of the Brookline Chronicle, 



4 8 

proprietor and publisher of the Brookline Transcript news- 
paper in the latter part of the sixties and early seventies. 

In the house next to Mr. Daniels in 1865 lived William 
Heath and family, since which time it has been occupied by 
several families. 

In the next house, now owned by Charles H. Stearns and 
occupied by the Aechtler family, lived in 1865 and for some 
years thereafter Mr. Charles T. Plimpton and family. 

On the corner of Washington and Cypress streets was 
built, in 1795-96, the Tolman house, which is still standing and 
an ancient landmark in the town. Its owners from the time 
of its building down to 1861 were Jonas Tolman, cordwainer, 
and his heirs. In the later year it was sold to the president 
of your society and ten years or so later, by him to the late 
John Gibbs, and later by Mr. Gibbs, a part to the Methodist 
Society of the town, and the old house to Mr. Hill, the pres- 
ent owner. 

Directly on the corner stood the Tolman shoemaker shop 
and shoe store, occupied for more than sixty years by the 
Tolmans, father and son, and in later years by George 
Echardt and Rupert Weinstein. The old shop gave place to 
the Methodist Chapel, erected in 1879, which was occupied 
by that society until 1892, when it was sold to the Universa- 
list Society, which still owns and occupies it. The Methodist 
pastors in the Chapel were Rev. Mark Trafton, Rev. Mr. 
McDonald, Rev. Mr. Brodbeck and Rev. Mr. Twombley. 
Those of the Universalist Society have been Rev. Mr. Potter- 
ton, Rev. Mr. Biddle, and the present incumbent Rev. Mr. 
Gerrish. 

The old Tolman house, now owned and occupied by Mr. 
Hill, has had many occupants since 1865, among whom have 
been Miss Harriet Woods, author of "Historical Sketches of 
Brookline," the Misses Elizabeth and Mary Peabody (the 
latter became Mrs. Horace Mann, and they also at one time 
taught a select school therein), and Miss Rachel Cushing, 
who kept in it her school for girls and young ladies. 

Here ends our sketch of changes along the lower half of 
Washington street, through Brookline Village since 1865, 
and with this startling statement, that of all the men of 
voting age that then resided upon it, for its entire length 
between the Roxbury and Brighton lines, two only are left, 
Thomas B. Griggs and Martin Kingman. 



No. 3 




PUBLICATIONS 



OF THE 



Brookline Historical Society 



JOHN WHITE OF MUDDY RIVER 



PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY 
APRIL 22, 1903, AND APRIL 27, 1904 



PUBLICATIONS 



OF THE 



Brookline Historical Society 



JOHN WHITE OF MUDDY RIVER 

and Descendants of his Youngest Son, Benjamin 

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, APRIL 22, igoj 
AND APRIL 27, 1Q04 



CHARLES F. WHITE 




BROOKLINE, MASS.: 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 

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JOHN WHITE OF MUDDY RIVER 

AND 

DESCENDANTS OF HIS SON BENJAMIN. 

Some four years ago Mr. Thomas J. Lothrop, then living 
in this town, published a pamphlet entitled, John White of 
Watertown and Brookline. It is a concise genealogical reg- 
ister of five generations, under seventeen family heads with 
117 children. At the present time there are living in the 
town members of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th generations who 
bear the family name, and of other names including the 10th. 

The adult members of the second generation consisted of 
three sons. The children of John White, Jr., the eldest 
son, removed from Brookline and have not been associated 
with Brookline history excepting Abigail, who married 
William Sharp, and Sarah, who married John Winchester. 

Descendants of the two younger sons have been citizens of 
the town to the present day, and it may be said in a general 
way, that those descended from Joseph, the second son, have 
lived in the southern and western parts of the town centering 
about what is now the junction of Warren and Heath streets, 
while those descended from Benjamin, the youngest son, have 
lived along the line of Washington street, either at the village 
or near the southwest slope of Corey Hill and it is to this 
division of the family that I shall confine myself. 

Nothing is now known of John White, senior, before the 
taking of the first inventory of estates at Watertown about 
1639, when he is recorded as owner of a " Homestalland seven 
acres of land " in that town. From the records of Suffolk 
Deeds we learn that in 1642, Stephen Day mortgaged to John 
White, seven acres of land and a house on the south side of 
Charles River, and in the same year, Reinold Bush mortgaged 
four acres also on the south side of the river; while in 1643, 
John White "deeds byway of mortgage to John Sherman, to 
s ecure a debt of ,£25 due the heirs of the widow Ong, a house 



and seven acres of land in Watertown bought from the Dea- 
cons, and a house and seven acres of land lying in Cambridge 
bought from Mr. Day." 

As we first see him, thus dimly outlined in Watertown, he 
is probably twenty-six to thirty years of age and not long 
married. Tradition has it that his wife was Frances Scarboro, 
and it also tells us that his son Joseph married Hannah Scar- 
boro, but I have, as yet, found no authentic record as to 
either. The given names of each of these early mothers of 
the Brookline Whites are well evidenced, but their family 
names are shrouded in the mists of the past. 

The four children were born in Watertown, possibly except- 
ing the youngest, Mary, who was baptized at Roxbury in 1652, 
" Mary daughter to sister White of Watertown, " so the record 
runs. 

Between the years 1636 and 1642, allotments of land at 
Muddy River, in various quantities, had been made to more 
than 100 persons, among whom the names of Aspinwall, 
Boylston, Griggs, Atkinson, Davis, Kenrick, Gross and others, 
are familiar to us at the present day. The bounds of these 
ancient grants are often quite obscure to any but the practised 
searcher. Fortunately some of them are more easy to trace. 

Between Corey Hill and Aspinwall Hill, a small brook, 
following the general line of Washington and School streets 
and Aspinwall avenue, drains that valley, while between 
Aspinwall and Fisher Hills the larger brook drains the valley 
of the Circuit railway line. 

Again the old boundary line separating from Roxbury was 
along the present "Village Lane" instead of the valley of 
Muddy River, in the Parkway. Let us now picture the land 
between the two brooks to an extent of two hundred and fifty 
acres. This was the grant to Mr. John Cotton. 

A grant of 100 acres to Elder Thomas Leverett was bounded 
northerly by the brook separating his land from Mr. Cotton's, 
"the east end being a sharp angle. " 

A grant of 100 acres to Elder Thomas Oliver bordered 
Roxbury line on the south, and Mr. Leverett's land on the 
north, while the east end was also a sharp angle. 



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In 1650, John White made his first purchase of land in 
Brookline, buying from Mr. Thomas Oliver 50 acres of upland, 
18 acres of marsh and 6 acres of fresh marsh for .£130, "to be 
paid for in good merchantable corn and fat cattle. " 

His homestead was located very near the present Whyte's 
block and the engine-house, between Walnut and Washington 
streets. Portions of this land are yet in the possession of his 
descendants, having passed from one generation toanother to 
the present time. 

To this first estate John White added various tracts of land 
in different parts of the town, so that before his death he had 
become a considerable proprietor. 

The gradual rise of local self-government in Muddy River 
can be readily traced in the volume printed by the town in 
1875. Until 1685, the chief officers were the constable, the 
surveyors of the highways, and the perambulators of the 
bounds, with occasionally a tythingman, appointed from those 
living in the hamlet by the Selectmen of Boston. After the 
full meeting of the inhabitants of Muddy River held Jan. 19th, 
1786, which accepted the order in council authorizing the 
hamlet to choose its own officers and meet its own expenses, 
there was a practically independent management of local affairs 
until 1705, when Brookline became a regularly incorporated 
town. 

In 1654, John White, senior, with Peter Oliver, Peter 
Aspinwall and William Davis, is chosen to lay out the high- 
way from Roxbury to Cambridge, through Muddy River. 

In 1655 and 1666, he is chosen constable. For five years 
he was perambulator of the town bounds, and for four years 
one of the surveyors of the highways. His last service seems 
to have been in 1676, when, with Peter Aspinwall and Edward 
Devotion, senior, he is on a committee chosen by the Select- 
men of Boston "to inspect and prevent excessive drinkage and 
such disorder in private and unlicenced houses of entertain- 
ment in Muddy River. " 

Under date of Feb. 20, 1672, we find that "Liberty is 
granted to John White of Muddy river, Senr., to cutt five- 
oake and ffive maple trees of the comon at Muddy river ; pro- 



vided, he doe what he can to secure the rest from others or 
to give notice of any that shall offend in that kinde. " 

That the grievances of our townspeople over changes 
in the highways of the town are of ancient standing, is curi- 
ously shown by the following entries in the records, and the 
methods pursued in obtaining settlement suggest those some- 
times employed by contending street-railway companies : — 

28, 12, 1658. " Whereas a highway was laid outt att muddy 
river as by a record dated June 8 1658 through the land of 
Jno. White att Muddy River and so by Tho. Gardners to ye 
farme of Isaac Stedman, itt is hereby declared yt, ye said way, 
so laid out, shall be reputed yetownes highway and the other 
way in ye law is hereby relinquished. And itt shall bee lawful 
for ye said Jno. White either to fence out ye sd highway, or 
else, to sett up gates such as may bee easy for opening to 
travellers ; and if any leave ye sd gates open att any time 
they shall pay five shillings for every defect ; being legally 
convicted thereof. " 

An entry about a month later shows the sequel and gives 
us a side-light upon the character of this early settler. It 
reads: 31, 1, 1659 "Upon information brought yt Jno. White 
at muddy river hath stopt up the highway yt was laid out 
through his fields with a stone wall ; Itt is ordered yt ye 
Treasurer shall issue forth a warrant for a fine of twenty 
shillings, for his offence, to bee levied by distress by ye con- 
stable, and so from day to day twenty shillings till ye sd White 
open the way again. " 

We may safely presume that there was a " considerable 
discourse " over this matter and that the offending wall was 
removed, for in a few months a third entry records the con- 
clusion as follows: 25. 12. 60. " Whereas a highway was laid 
outt through ye land of John White at muddy river whereby 
he pretends much damage ; Itt is therefor ordered yt his pro- 
portion of the ordinary rates to towneand country for ye next 
four years shall be allowed to him by the towne, which allow- 
ance is accepted by ye sd White for full satisfaction. " This 
result may have encouraged the complaint lodged in 1667 
against James Pemberton for setting up a gate in the high- 



8 

way by the bridge ; but this complaint was adjudged to be 
groundless ; " for as much as that for many years before, and 
some time sense John White's dwelling there a gate was 
erected and accepted in or near that same place. " 

There are various other references to John White in the 
town records, and the Suffolk Deeds contain several ; among 
them, the testimony of John Gore, John Winchester and 
Joshua Kibby, about a case of disputed measurement of land 
near Corey Hill, very quaint in its language but too long to 
to be quoted. 

In 1669 Edward Cartwright of Boston makes John White 
of Muddy River and Edward Morris of Roxbury trustees of 
his estate for the benefit of himself and his heirs. 

In the same records for 1657 we find that John White wit- 
nessed an agreement made by Thomas and Elizabeth Wiswall 
of Newton, then called Cambridge Village, binding them to 
give to their son Enoch, in the event of his marriage, their 
three lots of land and two houses at Dorchester. 

Thus encouraged, Enoch soon married Elizabeth, daughter 
of John Oliver of Boston, who for his character and attain- 
ments was called "The Scholar. " 

A granddaughter of this marriage became the wife of John 
White's grandson Edward, and it is of special interest for the 
clue it gives us to the origin of one of the persistent family 
names. 

Enoch Wiswall and Elizbaeth Oliver had twelve children, 
and they gave the name of " Oliver" to one of their sons. A 
daughter of this Oliver Wiswall named one of her sons Oliver 
White, and each succeeding generation has had an Oliver 
among its sons. At the present time there are three of that 
name living. 

Until there was a church established here in 1717, most 
people of Muddy River and Brookline went to the Roxbury 
church and its records are rich in references to them. In the 
list of "such as adjoyned themselves to the church at Rox- 
bury " is the entry for " 1677, 2d month 29th day ; John White, 
Senior, of Muddy River, was received with good acceptance. " 
Taken with what is recorded as to John White's services in 



his community and the usual close association of citizenship 
and church membership in the colonial days, the fact that he 
did not become a church member until he was sixty years of 
age is certainly interesting. It is not on record that he had 
previously " taken hold on ye covenant, " as the entries of 
half-way membership read, but we may suppose that he had 
done so. The incident of the stone wall in the highway 
indicates a man of determined character, while the advanced 
age of his coming into the church points to one not fully in 
accord with early theocratic ideals of civil government. 

John White, Senior, died in 1691, and his widow, Frances, 
five years later. Probably their remains were buried at Eustis 
street in Roxbury. No monument to them can be found at 
present. 

Their eldest son Lieutenant John White and his wife were 
buried there, and their headstones are as clear-cut as when 
new. Lieutenant John died about a year before his mother's 
death. 

It is worth while to recall to our minds for a moment some 
ot the stirring events filled with far-reaching meaning, which 
took place during the life-time of this early settler of our 
town. 

As a lad he saw the accession of Charles I. and could recall 
it much as a man of fifty can now recall our Civil War. 

When a young man he felt the political and ecclesiastical 
pessure which preceded the English Revolution, and he had 
been swept to New England on some wave of the great tide of 
Puritan emigration. In the days of the Long Parliament, of 
the War and of Cromwell, he was in Watertown, while the 
times of the Protectorate, the Restoration of Charles II., of 
James II. and the coming of William and Mary, were those 
of his living at Muddy River. 

In New England he may or may not have seen the Pequod 
War, but he witnessed the efforts at unity of Church and 
State, the driving out of Baptists and of Quakers in pursuance 
of that policy, the establishment of the Half-way Covenant, 
designed to widen the suffrage, but which paved the way to 
the decline of theocratic rule. Then came the times of the 



10 

Narragansett War followed by the anxious days of Andros 
and, as his life draws to a close, the Witchcraft and the New 
Charter. 

On April 13, 1691, two days before his death, he signed 
his will, which was witnessed by Joseph Griggs, Joshua Gard- 
ner and Roger Adams. It is on record in Suffolk Probate, 
and some of its items are of interest to us for their light on 
the times and the man. 

" I give and bequeath to my grandson John, son of my 
eldest son John .£40 in money or as money ; my fowling-piece 
and my best silver wine-cup being part thereof. To my grand- 
son Benjamin a carbine. 

" To my granddaughter Mary ; daughter of my son Joseph ; 
my second-best wine-cup, being silver. 

" To my grandchild Mary ; daughter of my son John ; a sil- 
ver dram-cup. To my sons John, Joseph and Benjamin a whip- 
saw, hatchill and a great iron pot, to be equally between 
them. I give and bequeath to my sons John, Joseph and 
Benjamin a certain parcel of land containing 32 acres ; acres 
his lot ; excepting four or five acres thereof ; which is else- 
where given to my son Joseph ; to be by them planted with 
an orchard to be improved for their eldest sons, to bring 
them up in good learning and upon failure of sons to their 
eldest daughters, to be reserved against their marriage. . . 
And that what expense they shall be at in planting an orchard, 
or otherwise about the said land, shall be paid out of the in- 
come. 

"And the said land shall always be kept in an orchard, by 
my sons or their heirs, which they shall keep clean from bushes. 
Further, I order that the aforesaid land shall be forth- 
with planted by my sons and their heirs, kept well pruned, 
and all dead trees supplied by living ; a nursery being kept 
therein for that end. 

" I further will that those who are brought up to learning be 
kept at the college seven years. " 

Without having precisely located this interesting orchard 
it seems probable that it was not far from the land recently 
bought by the town on Reservoir Lane. We note that a few 



II 

acres of the orchard lot had been given to Joseph White. In 
1703 Joseph deeds this to Benjamin his son and describes it 
as part of the lot purchased of John Ackers by his late father 
John White. In 1714 Benjamin White describes it in the 
same way and as " lying undivided with the shares of his 
kinsmen. " 

In 1716 Edward White of Brookline, Gentleman, and John 
White of Boston, Gentleman, sell to Benjamin White, Jr., of 
Brookline, husbandman, their one third parts of this orchard 
lot bounded southwesterly by a highway leading to Newton ; 
northwesterly by land of Peter Boyleston ; northeasterly by a 
highway leading to Cambridge line, and southeasterly partly 
by land of Benjamin White, Jr., and partly by land of Joseph 
Gardner. The provisions of this will give a vivid conception 
of the value put upon good learning in early days, but not for 
the young women. 

It should be noted here that although the will was dated in 
1691, it was probably written a good many years earlier, and 
it is probable that John White, Senior, had already divided 
his lands among his sons by deeds of gift. Excellent use was 
made of the improvement or income of the orchard. 

The grandson John, who received the "best wine-cup and 
fowling-piece, " graduated at Harvard in 1685 and prepared 
for the ministry, taking two degrees. He combined scholarly 
tastes with a good capacity for business and for public affairs. 
Judge Samuel Sewall speaks most highly of him in his diary. 
He was chaplain to Sir William Phipps. For three years he 
was a representative from Boston in the Legislature and 
Clerk of that body for twenty years. In 1697 he was chosen 
Fellow of Harvard College, and in 1713 its Treasurer, acting 
as such from 1715 to his death. He was one of the trustees 
of the Province-Loan, and one of the twenty-two proprietors of 
Leicester, Mass. In 1721 he was inoculated for small- 
pox by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, and died from complications 
ensuing during convalesence. He was never married. 

The eldest son of Joseph White was Benjamin, Jr., as he 
was called, and afterward Deacon. For some reason his next 
brother John was put to learning in his stead, and, graduating 



12 

at Harvard in 1698, entered the ministry, and in 1702 was 
settled at Gloucester, where he remained until his death in 
1760. He married three times and had eleven children. Of 
his seven sons, two graduated at Harvard College. 

Of the third grandson, Edward, son of Benjamin White, 
Senior, also a Harvard graduate, we shall speak later. 

In the division of John White, Senior's, real estate in 
Brookline the share of the youngest son, Benjamin, included 
the homestead and adjacent lands with all buildings thereon 
and all other lands then in Benjamin's possession. Those 
about the homestead fronted along what is now Washington 
street, from the foot of Walnut street to the railway bridge, 
and extended westerly along both sides of Walnut street. 
The other lands were on upper Washington street near its 
junction with Beacon street, probably including what in later 
times we have known as the James Bartlett farm. This Ben- 
jamin White was born about 1646, and is usually referred to 
in town records as Senior, to distinguish him from his nephew, 
Deacon Benjamin White, Jr. He is also called Sergeant and 
Ensign White. He describes himself as "yeoman. " In his 
younger days he probably carried on the " upper farm " 
near Corey Hill and, later, after the death of his father, made 
the homestead in the village his residence. He married about 
1680. His wife Susanna is supposed to have been daughter 
of William and Susanna (Hawkes) Cogswell of Chebacco 
parish of Ipswich, though I believe this is sometimes ques- 
tioned. 

Benjamin White died in 1823, and his gravestones (head 
and foot) are in the old Brookline burying ground, one of the 
earliest to be found there. The inscription reads : — 

Here lyes interred 

ye body of Mr. 
Benjamin White who 
departed this life 
January 9th day 

172! 

aged about seventy 
seven vears. 



13 

His widow survived him five years, but I find no memorial 
stone of her. Their son obtained leave of the town to build 
a tomb, and with one exception, there are no visible burial- 
ground monuments to any of this family in Brookline until 
we come to the tomb built by the late Oliver Whyte. 
The body of his father, Oliver, Senior, was removed from an 
old tomb and put in his new one. I have already stated 
that Lieutenant John White and his wife were buried in 
Roxbury. Joseph White and his wife Hannah were buried 
in Brookline and their headstones are well preserved. 

Ensign Benjamin White served the town as perambulator of 
bounds in 1685-90-93 ; as surveyor of highways in 1694. He 
was selectmen for eight years. In 1707, with John Winchester, 
Senior, and Lieut. Thomas Gardner, he was assessor of the 
Province Tax. He was one of the petitioners for the incorpo- 
ration of the town and he is on record as one of the committee 
of seven, appointed to treat with Mr. James Allen in 1717, to 
secure his services as minister of the parish church. 

In seating the church, i. e.. assigning to each his or her 
place of sitting, a duty performed by a special committee of 
five, viz., John Winchester, Sr., Thomas Gardner, Sr., Joseph- 
White, Capt. Aspinwall and Thomas Stedman, Ensign 
Benjamin White was assigned "the seat or spot at the right 
hand of the coming in at the east door of the meeting-house, 
valued at three pounds. " These pew-spots, when accepted 
by those designated by the committee at the prices attached, 
became the property of them and their heirs with the condi- 
tion that, if any proprietor removed from the town or "became 
reduced to such mean circumstances as not to be able to pay 
his public taxes, " then the title should revert to the town upon 
payment to the proprietor of the original price and the cost 
of building the pew. Proprietors built their own pews and 
pew-windows, the town keeping the latter in repair, and among 
other votes we read : "Voted that Captain Timothy Corey be 
granted liberty to cut a window in his pew at his own expense, 
provided he cut no braces, and that Mr. Moses White's win- 
dow be moved as far as may be without being carried out of 
his pew. " 



14 

Next to Ensign White sat his nephew, Dea. Benjamin 
White, Jr., with his family of four sons and three daughters, 
while next beyond, in the northeast corner, sat Peter Boylston 
with his six daughters and their brother, grandchildren of 
Ensign White. Peter Boylston, an elder brother of the famous 
Dr. Zabdiel, had married Ann, second daughter of Benjamin 
White, and in the row of girlish heads was the future mother 
of a President, for Susanna by her marriage with John Adams 
of Braintree became mother of President John Adams. 

Mary White, third daughter of Benjamin, married, in 17 10, 
Rev. Timothy Ruggles of Roxbury. He was a Harvard 
graduate of the class of 1707, and a month after their marriage 
he was ordained minister of Rochester, Mass., where his pas- 
torate lasted fifty-eight years. Theola.tia Ruggles, wife of 
Hon. Ginery Twichell, and Mr. Cyrus W. Ruggles, who so 
long kept the post-office in the old Brookline railway station, 
were among the descendants of this marriage. 

Susanna, the fourth daughter, married Captain Robert 
Sharp, third of the name. She died in 1770 at the age of 
eighty, and the names of Robert Sharp Davis and Mary 
Sharp Clark tell of her descendants in various Brookline 
families. 

Elizabeth, fifth daughter of Ensign White, married William 
Fairfield of Boston, and Joanna, the youngest daughter, mar- 
ried Joseph Ruggles of Roxbury, a brother of Rev. Timothy 
Ruggles, just mentioned. 

Edward, the youngest beneficiary of the orchard, born in 
1693, was the only son. Benjamin White did not leave a will, 
but instead he executed a deed of gift eight years before his 
death, having practically the same effect. In it he describes 
himself "yeoman " and gives to his well beloved son, Edward 
White of Brookline, "clerk, " all his houses and lands, all his 
stock of creatures living and dead ; all tools and utensils of 
husbandry without doors ; his black servant (slaves were not 
at all unknown in 18th century Brookline), one jack, a copper, 
one pair of dogs, a spit and a pair of iron racks of his movables 
within doors. The daughters were to inherit the rest of his 
personal property. Edward was required to pay to each sister 



15 

at the death of each parent, £25 to help provide their mourning. 
After the death of both parents he was to pay each married 
sister ;£ioo and each unmarried sister ,£200, and the receipts 
for each of these payments are duly entered in the Suffolk 
Probate. Their father also reserved to the unmarried daugh- 
ters the southerly end of his house, consisting of one upper 
and one lower room, with privilege of the cellar, also conven- 
ient diet and firewood. 

After making the deed of gift Benjamin leased to his son 
Edward one half of all his houses and lands for ,£40 per year. 

Edward, who had graduated at Harvard in 17 12, was now 
twenty -five years of age and had just married Hannah, daugh- 
ter of Oliver and Sarah (Baker) Wiswall of Dorchester. Where 
the young people made their new home cannot, perhaps, be 
ascertained. It may have been in one of the houses on the 
old lot at the Village, or, which is more probable, it may have 
been at the Bartlett farm, where, as Miss Wood tells us, he built 
the house taken down after the widening of Beacon street. 
Be that as it may, he brings into the family line a new and 
attractive figure. 

We have seen John of Boston, the scholarly city man, and 
John of Gloucester, the lifelong minister. Edward of Brook- 
line, youngest of the "orchard cousins," has also a liberal 
education, which he turns to the service of an enterprising 
man of business. He inherited a considerable estate from 
his father and he added to it several pieces of land aggregating 
about 75 acres. Most of it was near Corey Hill, on the 
northerly slope of Aspinwall Hill or bordering on Washington 
street. Other pieces were along the northerly side of Walnut 
street. 

To his Brookline property he added tracts of land in New 
Hampshire, from the grants made by the Province to soldiers 
of the Narragansett War. Most of this land was in the Merri- 
mac Valley opposite Manchester. References to these lands 
and to many events connected with the life of Edward White 
have been printed by the Historical Publication Society and 
need not be repeated. The town records from 1718 to 1761 
show him to have been almost continuously in the service of 



i6 

the community, although at the first call he pays the town 
£$ to be excused from serving as its constable. He was 
chosen Moderator of a large fraction of the town meetings 
between 1719 and 1760. He was town clerk and treasurer 
for five years, while for nine years he was selectman and 
assessor. He was the town's representative in the Provincial 
Legislature for five years. 

In 1721 the town chose him, with his cousin Samuel White 
and Robert Sharp, as trustee of the town's share in the Prov- 
ince Loan of .£50,000. 

He joined with John and Henry Winchester and Abraham 
Woodward in 1727 on a committee " to bring the schools into 
some good method " and the next year he was on another to 
locate the centre of the town for school purposes. That is 
the year when we find him in company with Thomas Cotton 
and Captain Gardner, charged with drafting an act to prevent 
geese from going upon the highways. 1728 found him on a 
committee to seat the meeting house, on another to audit the 
treasurer's accounts, another to carry on a lawsuit with some 
inhabitants of the south part of the town, and on another with 
Robert Sharp and Caleb Gardner to erect the North School. 

A taste for military duties runs through this family. As 
we have seen, Benjamin, Senior, was called Sergeant and 
Ensign. In 1740 Edward White is entitled Captain, and in 
1743 Major, while later each of his sons bore a minor title. 
A few years ago Captain C. P. Crawford of Milledgeville 
wrote me of an old commission preserved in the library of 
Emory College at Oxford, Ga. By the kindness of the college 
officers it was photographed and the plate sent to Brookline. 
It proved to be one issued in 1743 by Gov. Shirley appointing 
Edward White to be Major in the regiment of Colonel William 
Dudley and Captain of the Brookline foot company. The 
original had passed from eldest son to eldest son for four 
generations until given to Emory College by the widow of 
Judge Thomas Williams White of Milledgeville, who left no 
son to succeed him. 

If we go into the old burying ground on Walnut street and 
pass along its central roadway to the large elm tree near its 



i7 

eastern end, we shall see on our left a little headstone of slate 
cut with small but clear letters, " Here lies ye body of Hannah 
White, daughter to Mr. Edward and Mrs. Hannah White. 
Died October ye 9th 1725, in ye 6th year of her age. " 

Hannah was the first of the nine children born to Edward 
and Susanna White, and the little stone is the only visible 
monument excepting the one to Benjamin White, Senior, her 
grandfather, to any member of these families before the one 
erected by Oliver, great-grandson of Major Edward, near the 
southerly line of the grounds. 

Of Susanna, the second child, only this is now known, that 
she was living and married in 1765, when her father wrote 
his will. She probably married Stephen Brewer of Roxbury. 
Hannah, born in 1728 and who died in 1800, married William 
Ackers of Brookline. Sarah, the next daughter, died unmarried. 

John and Oliver each died unmarried in early manhood, 
consumption sweeping both away in 1771. The name of each 
appears once on the town meeting records, and each was an 
officer in the regiment of Colonel Francis Brinley. John 
was associated with his father in ownership of New Hampshire 
land. 

Ann, the youngest daughter, married Col. James Wesson, 
one of the most active officers from Brookline in the Revolu- 
tion, of whom extended notice is printed in the Publication 
Society's " Brookline in the Revolution. " She died of small- 
pox in 1776, contracted while feeding a tramp at her door. 

Major Edward White died in 1769, his life having spanned 
almost the whole period of Provincial Massachusetts, the 
days of political and military training for the era of the 
Revolution. His widow outlived him eleven years. 

By his will he gave to his son Benjamin, all of his lands on 
the northerly side of " the great country road leading from 
Watertown to Boston," as Washington street was long called, 
with certain lots on the opposite side. 

To his son John, he gave his mansion house with all lands 
adjoining and the buildings thereon, situated upon the north- 
erly side of Sherborn road, and a piece of meadow opposite 
the mansion house on the northerly side of the Watertown road. 



i8 

This shows that he was living at the village as early as 1765, 
and that his son Benjamin, was then living at the Bartlett 
farm. Other lands were divided to John and Oliver, the 
latter receiving his silver-hilted sword. 

To his three daughters he gives his lands in New Hamp- 
shire, and among other property " his negro girl. " 

He specifies that his mulatto servant Caesar is to wait upon 
his mistress so long as she shall live, and directs that neither 
Caesar nor Primus shall be sold, but shall live with which of 
his sons he liked best but not living in idleness. From the 
First Parish records we learn that Primus died in 1770, while 
Caesar died in 1792, aged eighty. Cuffy, who was deeded to 
Major White in 1735 by Leicester Grovenor, Esq., of Pomfret, 
Conn., for the sum of ^80, had died in 1762. 

To his widow he gave the use of one half of the mansion 
house, with such parts of the other buildings and of the 
garden as she might need, with all the poultry and the use 
of his household goods. Also one of his horses, which she 
liked best, and his riding-chair. 

The sons were required to furnish their mother with six 
barrels of cider, nine bushels of Indian meal and four bushels 
of rye meal, with one hundred weight each of beef and of 
pork with fire-wood annually. Under the provisions of this 
will the shares of property given to John and to Oliver, passed 
by their deaths in 1771 to the eldest son Benjamin, thus left 
the only man in the family of the fourth generation. He was 
born in 1724 and had graduated at Harvard College in 1744, 
and at the age of thirty-two he had married Elizabeth, 
daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Gardner) Aspinwall, elder 
sister of Col. Thomas Aspinwall of the Revolution, and of 
Dr. William Aspinwall, the successor of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston. 
Like his father, he was a landed proprietor conducting business 
and farming and giving a great deal of time to the public 
service. He took a most active interest in the events leading 
up to the Revolutionary War, and during all its conduct 
was one of its earnest supporters. It seems somewhat strange 
that Miss Woods in her Sketches of Brookline should 
have entirely missed Captain Benjamin White and his grand- 



19 

father Ensign Benjamin, since their names are so recurrent 
in the town records. She specifies in her notes on the 
family, that Major Edward was the son of John White, and 
that Mr. Oliver Whyte, our Town Clerk, whom she probably 
knew, was a son of Major Edward. 

From 1762, Captain Benjamin White served the town as 
selectman and assessor for ten years. He was representative 
in the General Court for eleven years, receiving a vote of 
thanks from the town for this service and another for his 
services as treasurer. 

In 1667 the town voted unanimously to take all prudent 
and legal measures to promote industry, economy and manu- 
factures in the Province and to discourage the use of European 
Superfluities, and Captain White was on a committee with 
Samuel Aspinwall, William Hyslop, John Goddard and Isaac 
Gardner to draft a form of subscription against receiving these 
European Superfluities. 

In 1768 he was chosen to meet the delegates of the several 
towns at Faneuil Hall. Upon the organizing of the commit- 
tees of correspondence in 1772, Captain Benjamin White was 
one of the Brookline members, and he was the town's repre- 
sentative at the General Assembly at Salem in 1774, acting 
under a set of formal instructions drawn up by Dr. William 
Aspinwall, Major William Thompson and Mr. John Goddard. 
In 1776 he was given the title of "Honorable, " the first in- 
stance of its use found in the town records, probably bestowed 
for his services as Councillor. He was many times Moderator 
of the town meetings and his last service was in 1783 as rep- 
resentative. He lived long enough to see the constitution 
ratified and the new government for which he had so earnestly 
worked, set in motion. 

Aside from the record of his public political services there 
are some other interesting items preserved to us. He was 
one of the committee chosen to consult and report to the 
town as to the cost of a steeple for the meeting house, where 
in to hang the bell which was given in 1771 by Nicholas 
Boylston. This question greatly agitated the town. Upon 
receiving the report of the committee, it was voted to erect 



20 

the steeple, specifying "that it is to be no higher than Dr. 
Boylston's steeple is." A later meeting voted to reconsider 
and, instead, to build only a tower with a proper roof. 
Motions to reconsider this vote were lost at two succeeding 
meetings. Meantime the town decided to build a porch at 
the east end of the meeting house, making Captain White, 
Squire Gardner and Mr. Isaac Child a committee to attend to 
it. The same meeting constituted Captain White, with 
Deacon Ebenezer Davis and Deacon Joseph White a com- 
mittee to look after the tomb which Mrs. Mary Craft is given 
leave to build. 

Before long the town decided to grant the spot in the meet- 
ing house where the women's stairs were, to Captain White, 
he agreeing to build and finish the porch at the east end, at 
his own expense, and to carry the women's stairs into it. 

Finally, in June 1772, the town reconsidered its vote against 
building the spire, and appropriated ^100 to pay for it, levying 
this tax against "the real and personal estates and faculty 
and non-residents. " 

In 1790, Captain Benjamin White died. His wife, Elizabeth 
Aspinwall, had died in 1785, and he had married in 1788, 
Esther Daggett, who survived him. His real estate in Brook- 
line comprised over 220 acres, and among those concerned 
with the settlement of it are several closely connected with 
the times and the families we have reviewed. Ebenezer Da- 
vis, one of the administrators, and Benjamin Davis, one of the 
bondsmen, were cousins, their fathers being of the same names, 
and sons of Deacon Ebenezer Davis, a descendant by his 
mother and his grandmother from John White, Senior. 

From Ebenezer descended, through his marriage with Lucy 
Sharp, Robert Sharp Davis and his brothers, General Phineas 
Stearns Davis and Samuel Craft Davis, the well known 
merchant of St. Louis. 

Both Benjamin Davis and his father had been successful 
farmers for the Boston market, their farm occupying the 
space between the brook and Davis avenue, on the westerly 
side of Washington street, where later lived Benjamin Baker 
Davis, the last man of that branch of the Davis line. Among 



21 

the appraisers were Squire Stephen Sharp and Mr. Joshua 
Boyleston, whose pictures Miss Woods has drawn for us so 
pleasantly. 

Captain Benjamin and Mrs. Elizabeth White had five 
children, Susanna, born in 1756, Edward, 1758, Thomas, 
1763, John, 1766, who died at the age of two years, and Oliver, 
born in 1771. 

As each of the th ree sons who lived to maturity was married, 
the tracing of the family line is less simple than in the case of 
the preceding generations in which there was but one adult 
male member in each, to whom fell the family estate. Before 
taking up the story of the next generation let us notice what 
became of Mr. White's lands as they passed into the hands of 
those with whom they are associated in our own minds. Cap- 
tain White died intestate, his son Thomas and Ebenezer 
Davis were administrators, and Thomas Aspinwall, John 
Goddard and Captain Timothy Corey made the division of 
the estate. 

Under the terms of his father's will, the death of his two 
brothers made Captain Benjamin White the owner of all the 
lands in Brookline, bequeathed to his three sons by Major 
Edward. These lands lay along both sides of the Watertown 
road and bordered the Sherborn road on its southerly side 
from the Village to what is now Cypress street, then called 
the New Lane. There were also the customary portions of 
salt marsh near Charles River and the Back Bay, and of wood- 
land in the southerly part of the town. In 1795, Thomas 
White sold to John Gardner fifty-one acres of land, bounded 
southerly by the Watertown road with the house thereon, 
also ten acres and the barn thereon, bounded northerly by 
the same road. In 1797 John Gardner sold the same lands to 
Timothy Corey. 

In 1800, Timothy Corey sold to Elijah Corey, forty acres 
of the land on the north side of the road with the house, and 
in 1843, Elijah Corey sold the same tract of land and the house 
to James Bartlett, who held it until the general cutting up of 
the old farmsteads when the widening of Beacon street took 
place. The one hundred acres of land on the slopes of 



22 

Aspinwall Hill passed into the hands of Dr. William Aspin- 
wall, brother of Mrs. White. 

In 1794 Thomas White bought in the land bordering along 
the Sherborn road, and in the same year the wood-lot adjoining 
Jonathan Mason's land was sold to George Cabot. 

In 1800 and in 1803, Thomas White sold to Oliver Whyte, 
described as a merchant of Petersburg, Georgia, the land from 
the corner of Village lane and Walnut street to the present 
Irving street. 

In 1820, after the death of Thomas White, Oliver bought 
about twenty-five acres more of this land along Walnut street, 
of John Robinson, administrator of the estate of Thomas 
White. 

The same year Henry Coleman bought about sixteen acres 
of this land from Oliver Whyte, and in 1822 sold part of it 
to Joseph Sewall, " being the southwest part of what is called 
Walnut Hill. " 

Other portions were bought by Samuel Philbrick and parts 
nearer the village by J. S. Wright. The easterly point of this 
land was retained by Mr. Oliver Whyte, where he built his 
mansion house, which stood there until the new portion of 
High street was opened. Certain lots of land in this vicinity 
are yet owned by his great-grandchildren, making continuous 
possession in this family for eight generations. 

The children of Capt. Benjamin White were not baptized 
in infancy. In the First Parish record of baptisms under date 
of 1775, 4th Sept., we find the name of Susanna White, adult. 
Then in the marriage record under the same date we find the 
names of Nathaniel Seaver and Susanna White. The date of 
death entered on both these records establishes the identity of 
the bride. For this we are probably indebted to the pains- 
taking care of Dr. Pierce. There is in town an excellent 
full-length portrait of this young couple painted soon after 
their marriage. 

Mr. Seaver was of the Roxbury family descended from 
Robert Seaver in which the name Nathaniel occurs again and 
again to the present time. His father was the Nathaniel 
Seaver, Sr., who married first, Hannah, daughter of Deacon 



23 

Benjamin White and Margaret Weld and who married, second, 
Sarah Stevens, whose child Nathaniel, Jr., was. 

The father's name appears frequently in the Town Records 
from 1723 to 1764, while that of the son appears but once, 
when in 1776 he served with Deacon Elisha Gardner and 
Captain Timothy Corey as a committee to sell at auction the 
pew of Mr. Isaac Winchester, deceased. Nathaniel Seaver, 
Jr., was half brother of Hannah, wife of Mr. John Goddard, 
and his name appears on the tablet in the Public Library 
presented to the town by that chapter of the D. A. R. which 
bears his sister's name. 

Another half-sister, Mary Seaver, married David Ockington, 
to whom we shall recur later. 

Seven children were born to Mr. Seaver and Susanna 
White ; of these three died in infancy and one was of unsound 
mind. Their second son, Benjamin Franklin Seaver, died 
unmarried when a young man while on a mercantile voyage 
to South America. Their youngest child, Susan White 
Seaver, became the second wife of Moses Grant of Boston, a 
name well known a generation ago. She died at Philadelphia 
while on a journey seeking relief from the attacks of con- 
sumption. 

Before 1790, Mr. Seaver had become one of those merchants 
and shipowners whose enterprise, after the Revolution, was 
carrying the flag of the new Republic into ports all over the 
world. In April, 1792, on board his ship the "Commerce" 
of Boston, he sailed from Madras bound for Bombay. His 
eldest son, Nathaniel Seaver, third, a lad of sixteen, accom- 
panied him, and the ship's first mate was David Ockington, 
before mentioned, also from Brookline. In the Arabian Sea 
adverse winds drove them far to the northwest, and they lost 
their reckoning so that while thinking they were on the 
Malabar coast, they were in fact midway the southern shore 
of Arabia off Cape Morebet. On the tenth of July the ship 
struck on a bar and the next day they were compelled to take 
to their boats. Muscat, about four hundred miles to the east- 
ward, was their nearest port, and they had hopes of sailing 
thither. Their small boats, however, were unfit to withstand 



24 

the storms they encountered, and they were driven ashore. 
Their crew consisted of twenty white men and seventeen 
Lascar sailors. In the landing, one boat was swamped and 
young Seaver and two others were drowned. In this strait, 
being unprovided with arms, they were at once attacked by 
Arabs and stripped of everything, even to their clothes. They 
then began a march toward Muscat without food or raiment, 
under a burning sun, along a shore almost destitute of water. 
Their sufferings were dreadful, and in their distress they 
separated into small groups. So far as is known only eight 
of the seventeen whites reached Muscat after a month of 
travel. Mr. Seaver was one of those who perished, but David 
Ockington escaped and returned to Brookline, where he died 
in 1822 at the age of seventy-six. The details of this disas- 
trous voyage may be found in a little leather-bound volume 
printed at Salem in 1794, entitled "Saunders Journal, " by 
Daniel Saunders, one of the survivors. 

Some time after the death of Mr. Seaver, his widow married, 
as his second wife, Samuel Gore, a descendant in the fifth 
generation of John Gore, one of Roxbury's earliest settlers. 
He was the eldest of a large family of which the youngest 
was Governor Christopher Gore, whose mansion and estate at 
Watertown is still perhaps the finest example of stately beauty 
within our borders. 

Mr. Theodore Watson Gore has kindly furnished me the 
following notes from his manuscripts. " Samuel Gore was a 
painter. He lived at one time in Green street at the corner 
of Pitts Lane, afterwards at the head of Brattle street. He was 
one of those stout-hearted patriots who furnished the muscle 
of the Revolution, whilst Samuel Adams and James Otis 
furnished the brains. He was one of those who seized the 
two brass guns 'Hancock' and 'Adams' now in Bunker 
Hill Monument, and conveyed them from the gun-house in Tre- 
mont street to the American lines under the very eyes of the 
British. Long before the Revolution, as early as 1722, a free 
school was established in what is now Mason street, near the 
corner of West street. It was then on the boundary of the 
Common ; the land now lying between having been sold 



25 

off the Common. The school was called the South Writing 
School, and was the fourth in the town, and later was known 
as the Adams School. A gun-house stood at the corner of 
West street at the beginning of the Revolution, separated by 
a yard from the school house. In this gun-house were kept 
two brass three-pounders belonging to Captain Adin Paddock's 
Train. These pieces had been re-cast from two old guns 
sent by the Town of Boston to London for that purpose and 
had the arms of the province engraved upon them. They ar- 
rived in Boston in 1768, and were first used at the celebration 
of the King's birthday, June fourth, when a salute was fired 
in King street. Captain Paddock had expressed an intention 
of surrendering these guns to Governor Gage. The mechan- 
ics who composed this company resolved that it should not be 
so. The British General had begun to seize the military stores 
of the province and to disarm the inhabitants. Accordingly 
the persons engaged in the plot met in this school-room, and 
when the attention of the sentinel stationed at the door of 
the gun-house was taken off by roll-call, they crossed the 
yard, entered the building, and, removing the guns from 
their carriages, took them to the school-room where they were 
concealed in a box in which fuel was kept. The loss of the 
guns was soon discovered and search made from which the 
school-house did not escape. The master placed his lame foot 
on the box and it was not examined. Several of the boys 
were privy to the affair but made no sign. 

" Beside the school-master and Samuel Gore, Abraham Hol- 
brook, Nathaniel Balch, Moses Grant, Jeremiah Gridley and 

Whiston were concerned in this coup-de-main. The 

guns remained a fortnight in the school-room, at the end of 
which time they were taken in a wheelbarrow at night to 
Whiston's blacksmith shop at the South End and deposited 
under the coal. From here they were taken to the American 
lines in a boat. The guns were in active service during the 
whole war. 

"The first Glass-Works in Boston were located in what 
is now Edinboro street. The company was established in 1787. 
The Legislature granted the company the exclusive right to 



26 

manufacture for fifteen years, and exemption from taxes for 
five years. The workmen were relieved from military duty. 
The company erected at first a brick building conical in form, 
but this, proving too small, was taken down and replaced by a 
wooden building, one hundred feet long by sixty in breadth. 
After many embarrassments the company began the manu- 
facture of glass in November, 1793. Samuel Gore was one 
of the originators of this enterprise, but the company failed 
to make the manufacture remunerative. 

" A collection of the arms of New England families was 
made during the last century. The original manuscript is at 
present inaccessible, but there exists a very careful copy 
printed by Isaac Child, Esq., a gentleman well versed in the 
rules of Heraldry. This transcript may be accepted as en- 
tirely authentic. The earliest recorded coats are dated 1701 
and 1703, the latest 1724. It seems highly probable that the 
dates refer to the times when the memoranda were made. 
Mr. Child's copy says, made by John Gore, but it is certain 
that an English Heraldic Manuscript which was preserved 
with the book had inscribed in it the name of Samuel Gore. 
Dr. Drake has also a bill dated 1783 from Samuel Gore to 
Governor John Hancock, in which these items occur: — 

To painting chariot body and wheels. . . . ;£ 15-0-0 
To painting sill of coach and wheels. . . . 1-4-0 
To drawing arms on paper ..... 0-3-0 

From this it would appear probable that Samuel Gore was 
the painter of the arms in the Manuscript. 

" Samuel Gore was severely wounded in the affair of Febru- 
ary 22, 1770. On that day some boys and children set up a 
large wooden head on a board faced with paper, on which were 
painted the figures of four of the importers who had violated 
the merchant's agreement (as to the paying of the stamp-tax). 
This board was set up in the street before Theophilus Lillie's 
door. Soon after it was set up, a famous importer, who lived 
but a few doors off, came along and endeavored to persuade a 
countryman to drive his cart against it, but that individual 
had no disposition to meddle. Not long after this the im- 
porter tried to get a man with a charcoal cart to break down 



27 

the image, but he declined also. The importer became vexed 
at his ill success and the bystanders became amused, so he 
returned to his own house followed by numerous boys and 
others. As he was returning he passed Mr. Edward Proctor, 
Mr. Thomas Knox, and Captains Reodan and Skillings, at 
whom he cried, 'Perjury, Perjury.' Upon this angry and 
insulting language followed upon both sides ; missiles were 
thrown at the importer by the boys who, at length, compelled 
him to shut himself up in his house. Not satisfied with being 
safe there, he most unwisely undertook to revenge himself, 
which he did by firing a gun from two windows, severely 
wounding Samuel Gore, then twenty years of age, and mor- 
tally wounding another boy, Christopher Snider, about eleven 
years of age, who died the following evening. On the twentieth 
of April next, Richardson was tried for his life and brought 
in guilty of murder. Governor Hutchinson, however, refused 
to sign the warrant, viewing the case as clearly being one of 
justifiable homicide. After lying in prison two years, Rich- 
ardson was, on application to the King, pardoned and set at 
liberty. 

" Samuel Gore was also one of the men who made up the 
Boston Tea Party. The tradition is that it was he who 
watched outside and gave the Indian whoop which was the 
signal to rush to the wharf. " 

Samuel Gore died in 1831 ; Mrs. Susanna Seaver Gore in 
1832. Their niece, who remembers their home in the later 
years of their life, tells me that it was on or near Tremont 
street, close by the present Roxbury Crossing. 

Thomas White, born in 1763, was the third son of Captain 
Benjamin, and for many years was one of the picturesque 
characters of Brookline. His name appears first on the town 
records as one of the chainmen employed by Mr. Jonathan 
Kingsbury of Needham, who surveyed a number of estates in 
the town in 1781. In 1792, the January Town Meeting was 
held at his house. In 1806, he was on a committee, with Mr. 
Thomas Whalley and Mr. William Marshall, to audit the ac- 
counts of the committee which was building the new meeting- 
house. He was also chosen clerk of the market for that 



28 

year. In 1811 he was surveyor of the highways for the second 
district which seems to have been his last public service. 

Thomas White lived during much of his adult life on the 
old John White homestead lot where Whyte's Block now is, at 
the foot of Walnut street. Possibly the old house formed a part 
of the group of buildings gathered there which included the 
country store kept by White and Sumner and later by George 
Washington Stearns. No doubt the patrons found it very 
convenient to the Punch Bowl Tavern, which ranged its inviting 
length along the opposite side of the village street. Some of 
the deeds on record at Dedham, style Thomas White "Trader, " 
others at a later date name him " Gentleman. " Among his 
closest associates was Mr. Isaac Davis, a man about his own 
age, a son of Benjamin Davis, Sr., and a grandson of Deacon 
Ebenezer Davis and Sarah White. Mr. Davis occupied a 
farm on both sides of the old Roxbury road, taking in the 
land from the Ebenezer Crafts farm to that of Ebenezer 
Francis, and extending from Muddy River up on to the slopes 
of Parker Hill, where the quarries are now worked. Mr. 
Davis lived to the age of eighty-seven. He married the eldest 
and the youngest daughters of Aaron White, who went from 
Brookline to Roxbury, and the members of my father's family 
heard many stories of old-time days from " Uncle Davis, " as 
he was usually called. Not a few of these tales related to the 
doings of himself and "Tom White," for both were ardent 
sportsmen noted for their skill with both rifle and fowling- 
piece. Turkey shootings were then much in vogue and these 
cronies often went together. The shootings were a specula- 
tion to the man who set up the turkeys as well as to those 
who paid twenty-five cents per shot, and if Tom White and 
Isaac Davis attended one together, there was usually small 
profit to the proprietor. They were sometimes barred out, it 
is said, where their skill was known, or limited as to the num- 
ber of shots they might make. 

Neither of the sons of Capt. Benjamin White married early 
in life. As we have seen, their father left a large acreage of 
land at his death, but it was heavily incumbered and his sons 
had to make their own way, and no doubt it took a sturdy 



29 

effort to retain so much of the family estate as Thomas White 
became possessed of. In 1803, when forty years of age, he 
married Rachel Thayer, daughter of Capt. Jedediah Thayer 
of Woburn, who had been an officer in the Continental Army 
through much of the War of Independence. He was of the 
Braintree Thayers, sprung from Thomas Thayer, freeman of 
Braintree in 1640. On her mother's side, Mrs. White was a 
descendant of Richard Thayer, a freeman of Boston in 1647, 
but who died at Braintree. One of her nephews was Gideon 
French Thayer, founder of the Chauncy Hall School, and 
previously teacher in a Brookline private school. We noticed 
that Susanna White was baptized on her wedding day. 
Thomas White, her brother, was baptized by Dr. Pierce on 
May 19, 1805, on the day when he brought his oldest child, 
Thomas, then three weeks old for the same ceremonv. 

Thomas White died in 1819. Mrs. White, who was twenty- 
one years his junior, died in 1850. They had six children ; 
two of them died in infancy. Their second son, also named 
Thomas, died in 1836, at the age of twenty-five and unmarried. 
Their daughter Rachel, died also unmarried in 1841. 

Their second daughter, Elizabeth, married Mr. W. H. Perry 
of Sherborn, and after her death, the youngest daughter, 
Susanna, became Mr. Perry's second wife. 

The Perry farm on the southerly slopes of Brush Hill in 
Sherborn was a noted one a half century ago, especially for 
its apples ; and it is still one of attractive appearance. On the 
crest of the hill about an acre of ground is yet owned by Mr. 
Perry's children, though devoted to the uses of the town, 
which has built a tower thereon from which the outlook is 
very wide. 

The youngest son of Benjamin and Elizabeth White was 
Oliver. For reasons connected with business convenience, 
he wrote his surname " Whyte, " to which form of spelling 
his descendants have adhered. With his name we seem to 
step out of a past age, of which the characters must be pictured 
from records too often scanty, into one with which not a few 
now living are familiar. 

Born in 1771, he went when a young man to engage in 
business in Georgia, to which state his oldest brother had al- 



3Q 

ready gone to make his home. He settled in Petersburg, be- 
coming a prosperous merchant, where he seems to have re- 
mained until about 1803. That he kept pretty closely in 
touch with his native town, and looked forward to returning 
thither, is evidenced by his several purchases of lands of the 
old White homestead farm, as we have already seen. At the 
March meeting of 1810, he was on the auditing committee, 
and on the one appointed to inspect the town's stock of arms, 
uniforms and ammunition ; with him were Captains Joseph 
Jones and Joshua C. Clark. From that date to the time of 
his death, Mr. Whyte was continuously in the town's service 
in various capacities. He was chosen Selectman and Assessor 
in 1 8 18, and annually thereafter until 1831. He was Town 
Treasurer from 1829 to 1838. In making their report for 
that year the Auditing Committee, Dr. Charles Wild, Dea. 
Elijah Corey and Mr. Ebenezer Heath close by saying: "We 
wish to express our opinion that the thanks of the town are 
especially due to Mr. Oliver Whyte, late Town Treasurer, for 
the faithful manner in which he has so long performed the 
duties which he has now relinquished. " 

The Post Office was established in Brookline, March 3, 1829, 
and Mr. Oliver Whyte was appointed post-master, continuing 
as such until the close of the year 1842. In the Public Library 
is a small manuscript volume containing his copies of corres- 
pondence and accounts relating to the Post Office. Every 
page of this book is evidence of his accuracy and care, and 
of his taste for preserving exact records. His returns to the 
General Post Office were made quarterly. For the term from 
July 1st to October 1st, 1829, being the first full quarter of 
the Brookline Office, the total receipts of the office were 
$69.09^. The pay of the post-master for that quarter was 
$24,041/2, being thirty per cent of the letter postage and fifty 
per cent of the rates on newspapers. For the same quarter of 
1842 the total receipts were $122.57. 

In December, 1841, Mr. Whyte addressed a letter to the 
Post-Master General which is interesting from several points 
of view. It reads: " Brookline, Dec. — 1841. Sir. Your cir- 
cular requiring names and certificates of sufficiency of sureties 




Oliver Whyte, Senior, 

[In his 72d year.] 



3i 

was duly received. But, as I am about to resign my office, 
as soon after the conclusion of the present quarter as I can 
have a suitable successor recommended by those most inter- 
ested in the good management of the office, and feeling my- 
self equal to the responsibility for the present quarter, I have 
not been so prompt in my reply as I otherwise should have 
been. The sureties which I gave on entering the duties of the 
office have, I believe, both deceased some years since. But as 
I have held the office so long (perhaps there is no person in 
the United States now living who received a commission as 
post-master so early and continued it so many years and made 
more prompt quarterly returns and payments), I hope you 
will excuse my omission to return sureties for the present 
quarter. I shall feel sufficiently interested to see that the 
person recommended as my successor is equal to the respon- 
sibilities and duties of the office. 

" My first appointment as post-master was at Petersburg, 
Georgia, soon after the establishment of a post-office there in 
1793 or 94, from Timothy Pickering (when the list of post- 
offices in the United States was contained on one side of a 
small sheet of paper), and renewed by Joseph Habersham and 
continued by Gideon Granger. While holding this commission 
I removed from Georgia to this place, and when a post-office 
was established here I took the appointment which I have held 
from that time, and my quarterly account has been made out 
and the balance deposited or payment made agreeable to 
orders from the department by my own hands. The balance 
of the present quarter I shall pay over to Mr. Mcintosh, the 
mail contractor, without further orders from the department. 
C. A. Wickliffe, P. M. Gen." 

At the end of a letter to John A. Bryan, second Assistant 
Post-Master General, enclosing final accounts, November 11, 
1842, this memorandum appears : 

" This compleats, in all probability, my official duties with 
the post-office department, which was commenced in 1793 or 
4 and which, I hope, has proved generally correct and 
acceptable. " 

The public service, however, for which Mr. Whyte is oftenest 
recalled and in which he engaged the longest was that of 



32 

Town Clerk, the duties of which office he performed for 
twenty-seven years, from 1814 to 1842. Among the things 
which he at once set about doing as Town Clerk was the 
making of a transcript of the old first volume of Muddy River 
Records, which was falling into decay. His copy, thus made, 
forms Book No. 3 of the Town Records. As an adjunct to 
this book he put into tabular form the birth-lists of many of 
the older Brookline families, grouping the names of the child- 
ren under those of their parents, a work which he was well 
fitted to do and one which has since proved exceedingly help- 
ful. 

In 1812, Mr. Whyte married Mrs. Elizabeth (Richardson) 
Grafton, and their home was made in the house which, as be- 
fore stated, stood where the Union Building now is, at the 
junction of High and Walnut streets. In 1844, Mr. White 
died. Mrs. White survived him until 1871 in her ninety-second 
year. They had three sons, and their only daughter is still 
living among us at an advanced age. Of their sons, Edward 
Henry married Miss Eliza Trescott, but died in 1847 without 
issue. 

Benjamin Franklin married Miss Ellen Jane Hall. He died 
in Medford in 1887, and his five children live in the neighbor- 
hood of Boston. 

Oliver Whyte, Jr., married Miss Elizabeth Bullard. He 
died in Brookline in 1885, leaving one daughter. He served 
the town for many years upon the Water Board and as 
Selectman, as well as in other capacities. 

The eldest son of Captain Benjamin White, born in 1758, 
was named Edward, after his grandfather. No records of his 
boyhood remain to us, but we can easily imagine the eager in- 
terest with which he listened to what was talked of around 
him and at his father's house in the days just before the 
Revolutionary War. In 1775 the only organized military 
company in Brookline was the one under Captain Thomas 
White. This Thomas White was a son of Sarah Aspinwall 
and thus a cousin of Elizabeth Aspinwall, Edward White's 
mother. He was son of Benjamin White and grandson of 
Dea. Benjamin White, Jr., before mentioned. This relation- 



33 

ship may in some degree account for our finding Edward 
White, though not yet sixteen and a half years of age, enrolled 
as a private in this company and returned as one who marched 
on the Lexington Alarm and as in service twenty-three days. 
We next find him recorded as Ensign in Captain Nahum 
Ward's company of the Ninth Massachusetts Regiment in 
the Continental Army, commanded by Colonel James Wesson. 
Col. Wesson, we may recall, was Edward White's uncle by 
his marriage in 1768 to Ann White. 

The Massachusetts Archives contain upward of twenty 
references to Edward White and those at Washington several 
more, from which it appears that he was promoted to Lieuten- 
ant in the Ninth Regiment dating from March 6, 1778. He 
was transferred, as was Col. Wesson, to the Eighth Massa- 
chusetts, and again to the Third, in which regiment he was 
Lieutenant of the Light Infantry Company under Colonel 
Michael Jackson, as shown by a roll dated October 5, 1783. 
In a notice of his death in the Savannah Evening Ledger it 
is stated that he held a major's commission in the Continental 
Army, but if so, no record of it is yet found, though he was 
certainly styled Major and is so recorded in the Public Records 
of Savannah. I have thought it possible that his having in 
possession the old colonial commission of his grandfather of 
1742, may have had something to do with it, the names being 
identical. That he was in Brookline after the Revolution is 
indicated by his joining his father in signing a mortgage note 
recorded in 1784 at Dedham, among Norfolk Deeds. 

In 1785, he went to Savannah, Ga., where he lived for the 
remainder of his life. He was clerk of the Court Ordinary of 
Chatham county for a number of years (the Probate Court), and 
in 1797, June 22d, was appointed Surveyor of the Port of 
Savannah, which office he held for life. The City Records 
contain the following remarks : " The deceased bore a Major's 
commission in the Revolution and acquitted himself with honor. 
He was a resident of the city for twenty-seven years, during 
which he filled several important stations. He has left a widow 
and four children and a good property. Died at and was buried 
from his house. His funeral was attended by the Union 
Society and the Volunteer Corps of Savannah. " 



34 

In the old Savannah Cemetery, now a part of Colonial Park, 
is his burial stone, inscribed, "Sacred to the memory of Major 
Edward White, an officer of the Revolutionary Army, who 
died January 9th, A. D. 1812, aged 54. " 

In 1792, Major White married Mildred Scott Stubbs of, 
Louisville, Georgia. She died July 23, 1825, and was buried 
at Milledgeville. They had three sons and one daughter, one 
son dying in childhood. The daughter, Maria Susan White, 
born in 1805, married in 1825, Mr. Francis Vincent de Launay. 
Of their four sons and five daughters, eight lived to maturity, 
and their descendants are now a numerous company. 

Thomas White, born in 1801, became a planter and removed 
to Alabama and later to Mississippi, where he died in 1867. 
He was twice married, and by his daughters left a number of 
descendants now living. Of his sons but one, William Lee 
White, lived to maturity and was killed in 1864, a minor officer 
in a Mississippi regiment. 

Major Edward White's eldest son, born in 1793, received 
the name of Benjamin Aspinwall, associating the names of 
his grandparents. To him our Brookline was a familiar place 
as well as the home of his ancestry. He came to Roxbury to 
live with his aunt, Mrs. Gore, while preparing for college, and 
in 181 1, he graduated from Harvard with a Master of Arts 
degree. In 181 5, he graduated in medicine at the University 
of Pennsylvania. Two years later he married at Savannah 
Miss Jane Eleanor de Clensie, and in 1821, removed and es- 
tablished himself on a fine plantation near Milledgeville, where 
he became a very successful physician as well as planter. To 
his estate he gave the name of " Brookline " and so it is still 
called, although a fire, some years ago, destroyed his house 
upon it. Dr. White was held in the highest esteem personally, 
and as a physician. For twenty-five years he was annually 
chosen president of the State Board of Medical Examiners. 
He was one of the pioneers in establishing the Hospital 
for the Insane at Milledgeville, which he served in several 
capacities. The Civil War found him in his sixty-ninth year, 
but he at once volunteered and he served actively throughout 
the war. A part of the time he was Surgeon-General of the 



35 

Georgia State troops. Dr. White died on the sixteenth of 
April, 1866. The next day the following notice of his death 
appeared in the Milledgeville " Federal Union : — " 

[From The Federal Union (Milledgeviile, Georgia), April 17th, 1866.] 

DEATH OF DR. BENJ. A. WHITE. 

Dr. Benj. A. White died at his residence in this city Mon 
day morning, April 16th 1866, in the 74th year of his age 
Dr. White was born at Louisville, Jefferson County, Ga., and 
was the son of Maj. White, of Savannah, a distinguished 
soldier of the Revolutionary War. He was educated at Cam- 
bridge, Mass., and was a classmate of Edward Everett, and 
Drs. Webster and Parkman of Boston. He was Surgeon 
General of the State of Georgia, during the first year of the 
late war, and was President of the Medical Examiners Board 
of this State at the time of his death. 

He has been a citizen of this county nearly a half century. 
Highly educated and devoted to his profession, he became 
very soon after his entrance upon the field of duty, distinguished 
as a physician and surgeon, not only in the immediate circle 
of his practice, but throughout the State. The death of no 
man in the community could be more regretted. Honest, 
conscientious, highly gifted by nature, eminent in his profes- 
sion, kind and affable in his deportment to all, he was the idol 
of his family, beloved by his friends, and universally respected. 
He died at a good old age, after a life of ceaseless labor, and 
great usefulness, unspotted by an act of intentional injustice 
to his fellow-man. Few men were more modest- — but no 
man was more decided when duty called upon him to act. 

In contemplating his character, we are reminded of the 
language of a distinguished author : " In life we shall find many 
men that are great, and some men that are good, but very few 
men that are both great and good. " Dr. White was both 
great and good. 

In this brief notice, we could not hope to do justice to the 
life and character of such a man as Dr. White — other pens 
must perform the office. He died surrounded by his wife, 
children, relatives and friends, peacefully, rational to the last, 
and with a clear and unobscured vision of his spirit's happy 
home. 

In his will he expressly provided that the merest essentials 
should be furnished for his burial, and that a sum equivalent 
to the customary funeral expense of a well-to-do gentleman, 
should be given for the use of the orphans of Confederate 
soldiers in his native state. This was done as he desired, but 
the affection of his friends found expression in a wealth of 



36 

flowers which covered everything with their beauty. Mrs. 
White died November 17, 1873, and was buried in the family 
lot in the Milledgeville City Cemetery. 

Dr. and Mrs. White had ten children ; of these, eight were 
married, and there were, all told, fifty grandchildren, so that 
this branch of John White's descendents seems in little danger 
of extinction or of the loss of the family name. 

Dr. White's second son was named Thomas Williams, in 
memory of the Mr. Williams who had brought up Mrs. White 
after the early death of her parents. After preparing for 
college he came North, spending some six years before going 
home. He was one year at the Military Academy at West 
Point. Later he entered Norwich University at Northfield, 
Vermont, where he graduated in 1841. He also made an ex- 
tended visit in Brookline with Mr. Oliver Whyte and his 
family. Subsequently he taught school in Ohio and then 
returned to Milledgeville, where he studied law and began the 
practice of that profession. 

In 1849 he organized and led a company which, after eight 
months of hardships, made the overland journey to California. 
Mr. White was the engineer who laid out San Jose for the 
proprietors, and was chosen Mayor of the new city. He was 
also made judge in the county courts. In 1854 he returned 
to Milledgeville, having prospered in California ; and the next 
year he again visited Brookline. At the beginning of the 
Civil War he raised a company, of which he was captain for a 
year, when he was transferred to the Engineer Corps and put 
in charge of the coast works of Georgia. He planned and 
built Ft. McAllister, near Savannah, having command there 
when captured by Gen. Sherman in December 1864. Upon his 
release from Ft. Delaware, at the close of the war, he resumed 
the practice of law in Milledgeville, and was a county judge 
there also. 

In 1866 he married Miss Henrietta Alston Kenan, leaving, 

at his death twelve years later, his widow and one daughter. 

Dr. White's third son received the name of Samuel Gore; 

he died when young, and the fourth son, born in 1824, took 

the name. In 1845 he graduated in medicine from Jefferson 



37 

Medical College at Philadelphia. His high standing is shown 
by his having filled the position of demonstrator in anatomy 
during a part of his last term. In 1846 he was appointed 
assistant surgeon, U. S. Navy, remaining in this service until 
the close of the Mexican War. He then settled in Milledge- 
ville, where he practiced medicine until 1859, when he went to 
Europe for travel and further study. 

Returning on the outbreak of war, he was commissioned sur- 
geon in Cobb's Legion of Georgia Cavalry, in which service he 
continued four years. Dr. White was one of the ablest 
surgeons in the army, and performed with great skill many 
capital operations. He was a chivalrous and skillful officer, 
greatly loved by his soldiers. 

At the close of the war he returned to his native city, worn 
down by service and with property swept away in the tide of 
conflict. He again took up his profession until his death in 
May, 1877. 

For twenty years he was president of the Board of Trustees 
of the Hospital for Insane, and held other offices of trust. 
He was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church and a man 
honored in the community where he lived. In 1849 he 
married Miss Caroline Anne, daughter of Charles and Eliza 
Bullock, their family numbering eleven children. 

The fifth son of Dr. B. A. White was named Edward James, 
as had been the eldest son who died in childhood. He was 
trained as a pharmacist. In the Civil War he was commis- 
sioned Lieutenant-Colonel of Georgia State Militia, serving the 
full four years. For several years he was treasurer and 
steward of the Georgia State Sanitarium. He was twicemarried, 
in 1852 to Miss Joseph J. Cotton, who left one son, Howard. 
In 1858 he married Miss Melissa Adrian Hill, by whom he had 
two sons, Joseph Hill and Thomas Edward. He died in 1881. 

Mary Virginia was the eldest of Dr. White's three daughters. 
In 1853 she married Rev. Habersham Jackson Adams of 
Athens, Ga. She died the year following, leaving no children. 

The next son received his father's name, Benjamin Aspin- 
wall. He was born in 1835, and in 1861 he became Captain of 
Company A, inColonel Stiles' Twenty-sixth Georgia Regiment, 
serving during the entire war. Subsequently he was employed 



38 

by his State in map-drafting. At a later period he engaged in 
farming. His home is at Marietta, Georgia. 

He married in 1859 Miss Ella Aurelia Kenan, a sister of 
Mrs. Thomas Williams White. Mrs. B. A. White died in 
1895, seven of her eight children surviving her. 

Two daughters came next in Dr. White's family, Rosa Jane 
and Susan Elizabeth, Each was married in 1859, the first 
to Mr. James Augustus Clendenin, having a family of ten ; 
the second to Mr. Miller Bond Grant, having nine children, of 
whom six survived her. 

I have been told that at the time of her marriage in 1817 
Mrs. Benj. A. White was called the most beautiful girl in 
Savannah, and that her sweetness and beauty of character 
were equally pronounced. That the three daughters inherited 
the attractiveness of their mother, I am assured by their sister- 
in-law as well as by their friends in our Brookline, whom they 
visited a short while before their marriage. 

The youngest of this numerous family, born in 1844, was 
given the much used name of Oliver. At an age almost the 
same as that of his grandfather at the opening of the Revolu- 
tion, he enlisted as a private in 1861, serving in Company A, 
of Hampton's Cavalry, Young's Brigade, Phillips Legion in the 
Army of Northern Virginia. 

In 1867 he married Miss Mary K. Johnston, a daughter of 
Colonel Mark Johnston. They have a family of seven children. 
Mr. Oliver White lives on the old home place, " Brookline," 
near Milledgeville. Not many now remember it as it was, 
filled with the young life of Dr. White's large family and their 
friends. The inevitable changes of more than two score 
years were vastly increased by the destruction and overthrow 
of the Civil War which claimed the father and the five sons, 
though their lives were spared. Mrs. Thomas W. White in a 
letter says : " You speak of returning to Brookline ; the 
name recalls many sweet memories of the 'Long ago ' when 
we (young people then) had merry times at ' Old Brookline,' 
as father's country place was called. I wish you could have 
visited our family then. You would have been a welcome 
guest. Hospitality only expresses the life of it. The terrible 
changes since those happy days makes us fully realize the 
shortness of this life's joys." 



THE CENTENNIAL OF BLUE HILL 
ACADEMY. 

A paper by R. G. F. Candage. Read at the meeting of the Society, Dec. 23, 1903. 



The essential part of town history is not an enumeration of 
its material resources and individual wealth, however interest- 
ing such may be, which in this era of commercialism are 
too often taken to be the true measure, but is contained in 
the higher and nobler aspirations, character and intelligence 
of its people. The founders of Blue Hill, like the earlier 
founders of other New England towns, were poor in purse, 
but rich in strength of body and mind, character and native 
intelligence, which enabled them to endure the toils and hard- 
ships incident to subduing the forest and planting upon that 
distant shore, far from kindred and friendly neighbors, new 
homes and a centre of civilization destined to challenge the 
admiration of their descendants. 

Through the town meeting they established law and order, 
formed a church for their spiritual guidance and set up a 
school for the education of their children, that, as they said, 
"they might not grow up like the heathen." The church 
and school went hand in hand in the new community, to 
teach duty to God, neighbor, country and self, and the chil- 
dren to be intelligent and fitted to take their places in the 
community on reaching maturity. 

If the founders of New England had given nothing to the 
land of their adoption but church and school they would have 
deserved well, but they gave much more. They framed and 
enacted laws which they enforced, framed constitutions and 
established a nation, with intelligence and manhood for its 
sovereign, of which every American should feel proud. 

The founders were men of sturdy Puritan character, with 
high regard for law and order, with reverence for the teach- 
ings of the church and school as instruments for moulding 
character and thought, for conserving the happiness and wel- 
fare of the community. 



Blue Hill was settled by John Roundy and Joseph Wood 
from Beverly, Mass., at the place called the Falls, in 1762, 
where they erected two log cabins, to which they brought 
their families the following spring, each consisting of a wife 
and six children. 

There are at this time descendants of Joseph Wood residing 
in Brookline, and the speaker and his children are lineal 
descendants of John Roundy. 

In the next few years a number of persons were added to 
the settlement from Beverly and Andover, who added to the 
importance and increased the influence of the place. 

In 1765, three years after Roundy and Wood built their log 
cabins, the tide mill " Industry " tor sawing lumber was built, 
at the raising of which, it is said, "every person of the hamlet 
was present and all sat at one table at dinner." 

In 1767 the first town meeting was held, when John Roundy 
was chosen town clerk, John Roundy, Jonathan Darling and 
Benjamin York were chosen selectmen : Nicholas Holt being 
moderator of the meeting. 

In March, 1769, it was voted "to raise money to hire a per- 
son to preach the Gospel to us and to pay his Board so that 
we may not bring up our children like the Heathen." In 
1769, "Voted to raise by subscription 150 (dollars) to Defray 
the Charge of Preaching." "Voted a Committee to see that 
the Gospel is preached to us." "Voted to repair the Old 
Meeting House for a place of Public Worship." 

These extracts from the records show plainly that they 
were hungering for the Gospel to be preached to them. 

The March meeting of 1772 was held in the meeting house 
at the Falls, and in the following October, ten years after the 
settlement, the Congregational Church was formed therein 
consisting of fourteen members, Rev. Daniel Little of Wells 
officiating at the services. 

It was the 24th Congregational Church organized in the 
district of Maine, the nearest being at Phippsburg, and the 
next nearest at Brunswick. 

There is evidence that a school had been kept in the settle- 
ment, probably supported by private subscription, but it was 



not till after the town's incorporation in January, 1789, that 
an appropriation appears to have been granted for, or mention 
of a school is made in the town records. After that, money 
was raised to build schoolhouses and for support of schools. 

The town grew in population and importance, roads were 
built through it to Sedgwick, Surry, Penobscot, and else- 
were ; lands were cleared, houses built and general activity 
prevailed until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, 
which checked its growth. The people of the plantation were 
loyal to the interests of the Colonies, and adopted such 
measures as to them seemed wise in aid of the Patriots' cause. 
They chose committees of Safety and Correspondence, and 
on July 17, 1775, one month after the Battle of Bunker Hill, 
a town meeting was held, at which it was "Voted that Lieut. 
Nicholas Holt, Joshua Horton and John Peters be Delegates 
to meet Delegates of other towns, Islands and Districts at 
the house of Mr. John Bean of Frenchman's Bay, 20th inst., 
to act on anything they shall think proper on said Day." 

March 28, 1776, the citizens met in town meeting, chose 
Joseph Wood Moderator, Joshua Horton, Nathan Parker 
and David Carleton a Committee of Correspondence, and John 
Peters, Zedediah Shattuck and John Roundy a Committee of 
Safety. The three years following they took like action, but 
in 1779 Castine was captured by British forces and held till 
the close of the war, which overawed the inhabitants of that 
region, and no more town meetings at Blue Hill are recorded 
until March, 1784, when the war was at an end. 

Among the first settlers of Blue Hill, Col. Nathan Parker 
and Jonathan Darling from Andover, were at the seige and 
fall of Louisburg in 1758, and Christopher Osgood and 
Nehemiah Hinckley were soldiers of the Revolution, serving 
through the war. 

During the Revolution the town suffered loss of its trade, 
and its citizens many privations, but they were borne with 
heroic fortitude and without waver of their patriotism. 

When peace came all rejoiced and at once set about the 
work of amending their shattered fortunes, and in carrying 



forward improvements in the hamlet, which had been inter- 
rupted by the war. 

They raised money to support the church ; procured land 
on which to build a new meeting house, and school house ; 
petitioned the Massachusetts Great and General Court for an 
act of incorporation of their town, which was granted by that 
body on January 30, 1789. 

In 1790, the town voted to build a new meeting house, to 
be 50 x 40 feet, and one hundred pounds was appropriated 
towards the expense of the same. In 1792 a change was 
made in the location of the meeting house, and another vote 
was passed dividing the town into classes for building the 
same. A vote was then passed which today would seem 
extraordinary, "Voted to empower the selectmen to procure 
one barrel ot rum, also molasses and sugar enough for framing 
and raising the meeting house." 

Rev. Jonathan Fisher was the first regular pastor of the 
church who was ordained under a tent in a field opposite the 
present site of the old town hall, July 13, 1796, the meeting 
house not having been completed. Rev. Peter Powers, of 
Deer Isle, preached the ordination sermon. 

Rev. Jonathan Fisher was of the Dedham, Mass., family, a 
graduate of Harvard College, and a college mate of the late 
Rev. John Pierce, D. D., of Brookline, and between the two 
there existed a lifelong friendship. 

Rev. Jonathan Fisher received his license to preach from 
the Cambridge Association in Brookline on October 1, 1793. 
Col. Horace N. Fisher of Brookline, a member of this society, 
is descended from the same line of ancestry, and Messrs. 
Charles and William H. White, also members of this society, 
are descended from the Averys, Rev. Mr. Fisher's mother's 
ancestry. 

The meeting house, constructed after many votes of the 
town, with care and what was then thought, great expense, 
with square pews, gallery, high pulpit, sounding-board and 
three porch entrances, like the Old South in Boston, stood 
until the first Sunday in 1842, when it was destroyed by fire 
caught from an overheated stove or funnel. 



5 

Rev. Mr. Fisher was pastor of the church for forty-one 
years, resigning his charge in consequence of age and declin- 
ing health. He died in 1847, aged 79 years. 

The writer sat under his preaching as a small boy and 
remembers him well. He was a man of great energy and a 
devout Christian, to whose teachings and example the people 
of the town were greatly indebted. 

To him perhaps more than to any other person the town 
was indebted for the founding of its Academy. He was an 
earnest promotor of education and often prayed for the 
" Divine blessing upon the Bangor Theological Seminary (of 
which he was a trustee), the Academy and the Common 
Schools." 

In March, 1802, a paper was circulated and signed by thirty- 
one citizens of the town, agreeing to erect an academy build- 
ing, the text of which was as follows : — 

"We the subscribers being impressed with a belief that an 
academy in this part of the country, under proper regulations, 
will be particularly advantageous to the rising generation, 
therefore do hereby agree for ourselves and each of us, our 
and each of our executors and administrators, to erect a build- 
ing for that purpose within the town of Bluehill, on the spot 
already agreed upon for that purpose, which building shall be 
thirty-eight feet long, thirty feet wide, two stories high, the 
first story eleven feet, and the second story ten feet high, and 
shall be completed in every respect suitable for an Academy, 
on or about the first day of November next, and we do further 
agree to provide a preceptor suitable in every respect for 
such an institution on or before the first day of January 
next." 

They divided the captital stock into one hundred shares, at 
five dollars each, and further bound themselves to maintain 
the school for the period of ten years, and provided that the 
shares should be assessable for such sums as might be needed 
for building the house and for the support of the school. 

The subscribers to that agreement were : Eben Floyd, 1 
share; Daniel Spofford, 2 shares ; Theodore Stevens, 3 shares ; 
Jonathan Ellis, 5 shares ; Phineas Osgood, 5 shares ; Daniel 



Osgood, 5 shares ; Israel Robinson, 2 shares ; Nathan Parker, 
Jr., 2 shares ; Enoch Briggs, 2 shares ; Peter Colburn, 1 share ; 
Robert Parker, 14 shares; John Peters, 6 shares ; Daniel Faulk- 
ner, 3 shares ; Joseph Treworgy, 1 share; Jedediah Holt, 2 
shares; John Dodge, 1 share; Andrew Witham, 14 shares ; 
Nathan Parker, 2 shares ; Reuben Dodge, 2 shares ; Obed 
Johnson, 2 shares ; John Chapman, 1 share ; George Stevens, 

1 share ; Jonathan Clay, 1 share ; Joshua Horton, 1 share ; 
Isaac Osgood, 5 shares ; Nathan Ellis, 1 share ; Peter Parker, 

2 shares ; Silas Bunker, 2 shares ; Samuel Wood, 2 shares ; 
Joshua Oaks, 1 share ; and Omaziah Dodge, 2 shares. 

On March 8, 1803, the school was incorporated as Bluehill 
Academy. The preamble to the act sets forth that "Whereas 
the encouragement of literature in the rising generation has 
been considered by the wise and good as an object worthy of 
the most serious attention, and as the safety and happiness 
of a free people ultimately depend upon the advantages arising 
from a pious, virtuous and liberal education, and 

" Whereas it appears that John Peters and several other 
gentlemen residing chiefly in the town of Bluehill, have sub- 
scribed to build and support an Academy for the term of ten 
years from the time of its incorporation — 

"Section 1. Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and 
House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by 
the authority of the same, that there be and hereby is estab- 
lished in the town of Bluehill in the County of Hancock an 
Academy by the name of Bluehill Academy, for the purpose 
of promoting true piety and virtue and for the education of 
youth in such liberal arts, sciences and languages as oppor- 
tunity may permit and the trustees hereinafter provided shall 
direct. 

" Section 2. Be It Further Enacted that David Cobb, John 
Peters, David Thurston, Jonathan Buck and Thomas Cobb, 
Esquires, Rev. Jonathan Fisher, Rev. William Mason, Rev. 
Jonathan Powers, Messrs. Robert Parker, Theodore Stevens, 
Donald Ross, and John Peters, Jr., be and they hereby are 
incorporated in a body politic by the name of the Trustees of 
the Bluehill Academy, and they and their successors shall be 



7 

and continue a body politic and incorporated by the same 
name forever." 

In June following the General Court granted to the 
Academy an endowment of half a township of land in a 
resolve as follows : — 

"Resolved, That for reasons set forth in said petitions (of 
Bluehill and Hampden Academies,) that there be and hereby 
is granted the Trustees of each of said Academies and to 
their successors forever, one-half township of land of six 
square miles, out of any of the unappropriated lands within 
the district of Maine, excepting the ten townships lately pur- 
chased of the Penobscot Indians, to be laid out under the 
direction of the agents for the sale of Eastern Lands and in 
such place as they shall direct. 

''In the House of Representatives, June 15, 1803, H. G. 
Otis, Speaker. 

"In the Senate, June 17, 1803, David Cobb, President. 

"Approved June 18, 1803, Caleb Strong, Governor." 

The half township granted to Blue Hill Academy by that 
Resolve was half of Plantation No. 23 in Washington County. 
It was sold in 1806 to Thomas Ruggles, of Columbia, at sixty 
cents per acre, netting $6,200, to the Academy. 

In addition to the above Nathan Jones of Gouldsboro 
donated a lot of land which sold for $300 and those two sums, 
so far as the records show, are all the Academy received from 
the State or from individuals, previous to its union with 
George Stevens Academy in 1897. 

The efforts of Rev. Jonathan Fisher and friends for the 
establishment of the Academy at Blue Hill were crowned 
with success in March, 1803, when the act of incorporation 
was obtained, and the building was completed and dedicated 
in April of that year, Mr. Fisher delivering the address at 
its dedication. He continued a member of the Board of 
Trustees for many years and exhibited much interest in the 
institution to the end of his life. 

In 1804 the Board of Trustees organized with choice of 
David Cobb, President; Jonathan Fisher, Vice-President; 
Theodore Stevens, Secretary ; and John Peters, Treasurer. 



David Cobb was born in Attleboro, Mass., September 14, 
1748; graduated from Harvard College in 1760; settled in 
Taunton, Mass., where he practised medicine. He was Lieut. - 
Colonel in the Continental army and served on the staff of 
General Washington. After the war he was elected to Con- 
gress from Massachusetts and was a member of that body for 
the years 1793-95 ! Judge of the Court of Common Pleas at 
the time of Shay's rebellion ; President of the Massachusetts 
Senate 1801-05, an d Lieut.-Governor of the State in 1809. 
From 1796 to 1820 he was a resident of Gouldsboro, Maine, 
and land agent of the Bingham Purchase of lands in that dis- 
trict. He was a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 
Hancock County. He died at Taunton, Mass., April 17, 1830. 

He was the friend of Washington, Knox, Generals Hamil- 
ton, Lafayette and other prominent officers of the Revolu- 
tion, and was one of the founders of the Order of the Cincin- 
nati. It was through him that his grandson, Samuel C. Cobb, 
late Mayor of Boston, became a member and head of the 
Cincinnati in Massachusetts. 

Lieut.-Governor Curtis Guild, Jr., of the State of Massachu- 
setts, is a great-grandson of Gen. Cobb, his mother being a 
sister of the late Hon. Samuel C. Cobb. 

Rev. Jonathan Fisher, Vice-President, was born in New 
Braintree, Mass., October 7, 1768, and was the eldest child of 
Captain Jonathan and Catherine (Avery) Fisher. His father 
was born in Dedham, Mass., and was an officer in the Pro- 
vincial army stationed on the frontier at New Braintree at the 
time his son was born. In 1773, the family removed to West 
Hampton, Mass., where their home was until 1776, when 
Captain Fisher resigned his commission in the Continental 
army. He died of camp fever at Morristown, New Jersey, 
March 10, 1777. 

Jonathan, the son, resided with his mother at Dedham at 
the time of his father's death and entered Harvard College 
from that town in 1788, from which he graduated in 1792. 
His efforts toward founding the Academy have already been 
recounted, and his influence upon the Board of Trustees was 
always helpful to the institution. His influence upon the 



religious and moral well-being of the citizens of the town need 
not be enumerated here, it being sufficient to state that it was 
large. 

Theodore Stevens, Secretary of the Board of Trustees, was 
born in Andover, Mass., July 12, 1763, and went to Blue Hill 
in early life. He was an earnest supporter of education, an 
enterprising citizen. He was secretary but a short time, 
resigning of his own volition. He died in 1820, leaving behind 
an honorable name. 

John Peters, Treasurer, was born in Andover, Mass., 
August 18, 1741, and went to Blue Hill in 1765, and there 
resided until his death in 1821. He was a land surveyor, a 
friend of David Cobb, a man of enterprise and an influential 
citizen. To him was entrusted the duty of presenting the 
petition to the Massachusetts General Court for the incor- 
poration of the Academy. There were no steamboats nor 
railroads in those days, and 'tis said that he rode horseback 
from Blue Hill to Boston, to present the petition, and upon 
receiving the act of incorporation rode back home. 

John Peters gave the bell to the Blue Hill church destroyed 
by fire January, 1842, and which was tolled for the first time 
at his death in 1821, at the age of 80. He was the father of 
a large family of children, one of whom, Edward D. Peters, 
Esq., of Boston, a merchant of the old school, won an honor- 
able place among merchants of that city for honesty and 
uprightness. The venerable John A. Peters, of Bangor, 
many years Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine, a 
graduate of Yale, a former member of Congress and an able 
jurist, is a grandson. 

John Peters, Jr., an incorporator, was a son, and an uncle of 
Judge Peters, for whom the latter was named, was a suc- 
cessful business man in New York. 

Rev. William Mason, another incorporator, was born in 
Princeton, Mass., in 1764; graduated at Harvard College in 
1792, was ordained over the first church at Castine in October, 
1792, of which he was pastor until 1834, when he resigned 
and removed to Bangor, where he died March 24, 1847. 

His son William, born at Castine, May 8, 1805, graduated 



10 

from Bowdoin College in 1824 ; studied medicine and received 
the degree of M. D. from Harvard College in 1832, removed 
to Chariestown, Mass., where he died March 13, 1881. He 
had two daughters, one of whom is the wife of Col. Horace 
N. Fisher of Brookline. 

Rev. Jonathan Powers, son of Rev. Peter Powers before 
mentioned, one of the incorporators, was a graduate of Dart- 
mouth College, a minister at Castine and an influential man. 

Jonathan Buck, one of the first settlers of Bucksport, a 
representative to the Massachusetts General Court and an 
able business man, was an incorporator. 

David Thurston of Sedgwick and one of its early settlers, 
an influential business man, was another incorporator. He 
educated two sons that entered the ministry, one of whom, 
Stephen, preached the 100th anniversary sermon of the Blue 
Hill Church in 1872. 

Robert Haskell Wood, another incorporator, grandson of 
Joseph Wood the first settler, a representative to the Great 
and Genera] Court of Massachusetts, was an able and 
influential citizen. 

It may be truthfully said of the incorporators and 
Board of Trustees, that they were able and earnest in their 
desire to advance the interests committed to their charge, and 
well performed their task in that new and distant field, far 
away from other centres of educational activities. 

There were but two colleges, Bowdoin and Waterville, and 
six academies in Maine, prior to March, 1803, when the Blue 
Hill Academy was chartered ; in that month Hampden and 
Gorham academies were chartered. The nearest academy 
before that date was at Machias, chartered in 1792. 

The Secretaries of Blue Hill Academy Trustees had been 
Theodore Stevens for a short time, then Ebenezer Floyd, who 
held office until 1806, when he resigned on account of other 
pressing duties. Reuben Dodge was next chosen and 
remained in office until February, 1830, and then resigned on 
account of failing health. Nathan Ellis was then chosen and 
continued in office until his death in 1848, when John Stevens, 



II 

son of the first Secretary, was elected, who remained in office 
some forty-five years until his death. 

When Mr. Stevens became Secretary and Treasurer, the 
funds of the Academy amounted to about $6,000 ; at the close 
of his stewardship they had more than doubled in amount. 

The old wooden building erected in 1803 was sold for $90, 
to be removed from the place where it stood, and was replaced 
by one of brick in 1832, costing $1,734, and in which the 
school was kept until united with the George Stevens 
Academy in 1897. 

The George Stevens Academy was built from a fund left 
by will of the late George Stevens, to trustees, to build a Bap- 
tist Academy whenever the trust should, in the judgment of 
the trustees, amount to a sum sufficient for that purpose. He 
also left his orchard for a site and his mansion house for a 
students' dormitory. He died in 1851. A part of the sum 
left was lost during the war of the Rebellion by investment 
in the South, so that it was not thought best by the trustees 
of the fund to erect the building until 1897. When it was 
finished the trustees of the Blue Hill Academy united with 
the George Stevens Academy trustees in an agreement to 
hold the school sessions in the new building, and that the 
name of the united school should be "The Blue Hill-George 
Stevens Academy." 

Since that time the old building of 1832 has stood more or 
less out of repair, but it is being put in order as an Historical 
Society's home, which was organized in August, 1903. 

The first term of the Blue Hill Academy began in Novem- 
ber, 1803, and was taught by Elias Upton at a salary of ten 
dollars per week including board. Elias Upton was the son 
of Abraham and Susannah Upton of Lynnfield, Mass., born 
February 16, 1772. He was a graduate of Harvard College 
in the class of 1802 and went to Blue Hill in 1803 to become 
the preceptor of the Academy, a position he held for eleven 
years. He married Affee Peters, daughter of John and Mary 
Peters, in 1808. He represented Blue Hill in the Massachu- 
setts General Court in the years 1813-15-16. He removed 
from Blue Hill to Buckport in 1817. He had two daughters 



12 



and one son born at Blue Hill. Mr. Upton died at Buckport 
in 1857 an d his widow died in 1862. 

The tuition charge to students in the old Academy was 
twenty cents a week each, and one dollar entrance fee. The 
school year was forty weeks. 

In summer a school was kept in the second story of the 
building by a preceptress, for younger pupils, at a salary of 
$2.50 to $3.00 per week including board. 

During the preceptorship of Mr. Upton the second war 
with England occurred, in which Castine was again captured 
and held by the British until its close. The proximity of 
Blue Hill to Castine and the dominating influence of the 
British over the country east of the Penobscot had an injuri- 
ous effect upon the business interests of the town and pros- 
perity of the Academy, but so far as the authorities consulted 
show, the school continued its work throughout that period. 

Since its incorporation the Academy has had forty odd pre- 
ceptors, about a dozen preceptresses and as many as seventy 
different persons upon its Board of Trustees, and withal a 
noble record. 

A hundred years are a short period in the economy of the 
ages, and in His sight, to whom "a thousand are as a day and 
a day as a thousand years." But to an individual, an institu- 
tion, town or nation, a hundred years are a period of historic 
importance. To the individual, because it exceeds the bounds 
of his earthly existence and greater than his experience and 
observation can properly measure. To an institution, because 
the sphere of its usefulness to the community has passed into 
history and can be more or less accurately measured, and a 
forecast of its future can be made. To a town, because of its 
advance in prosperity and intelligence, the wise administra- 
tion of its affairs, and the comfort and happiness of its citizens. 
To a state or nation, as it marks an era in its laws enacted 
and policies pursued for the welfare of its people, and their 
growth in civilization and Christian influence and growth 
among the nations of the earth. 

In reviewing the history of Blue Hill from its founding to 
the present day much is found in the lives and acts of its 



founders, and those who succeed them, worthy of commenda- 
tion. Their Christian character and their efforts in behalf of 
education, the advance and progress of the town and an 
earnest care to maintain its good name, are manifest on the 
pages of the town's history. They planned and planted in 
wisdom, and ' twould seem better even than they knew, and 
their descendants have ever since been reaping rewards of 
their labor. Like Moses on Mount Pisgah, they saw in the 
distance the promised land and rejoiced at the sight. 

They went to their reward with the consciousness that 
they had striven to make the world better through their lives, 
and that they would leave to their children an inheritance 
greater than that which they had received. We honor their 
memory and in the language of Scripture say, " Well done, 
good and faithful servants." 

The Academy they founded has flourished for a hundred 
years, and it is well to celebrate its centennial, take account 
of its past achievements and cast a glance over its future. 
With its history before us we can but imperfectly measure 
the influence it has exerted in the town and vicinity since its 
founding a century ago. 

Young men and young women in thousands have received 
instruction within it to fit them for their vocations in life, 
who have gone forth far and wide to spread its influence. In 
it have been fitted for college young men who became leaders 
at the bar and bench, in the pulpit, in the practice of medi- 
cine, and other learned professions. Those who became 
legislators in the state and nation ; teachers in private and 
public institutions of learning ; editors and writers of maga- 
zines, papers, books, and pamphlets, have received a part, and 
in many cases, the most part of their educational training 
within it. Many who later held prominent positions as busi- 
ness men, merchants, manufacturers, seamen and shipmasters, 
and became proficient in their several callings were trained in 
it, and have spread its influence over the continent and over 
the sea to the distant regions of the earth. 

Its teaching and influence was ever exalting, inculcating 
duties owed to one's Maker, his neighbor, himself ; love for 



home, patriotism for country, and those who have been re- 
cipients of that teaching were found to be loyal to their 
country when assailed by foes from without or within its 
borders. 

When an invasion of the state was threatened in 1839 over 
the disputed Northeastern Boundary, a company from Blue 
Hill, many of whom had been students at the Academy, 
marched away to the Aroostook to defend her rights. The 
Captain of that company, Nathan Ellis, Jr., was the son of 
the Secretary of the Academy's board of trustees. Happily 
that dispute was settled without bloodshed, but the patriotism 
of those sons of the town and of the Academy shines forth 
nevertheless. 

When the War of the Rebellion was in progress the young 
men of the town, in number reaching to nearly two hundred, 
answered their country's call for its defence, many of whom 
laid down their lives on distant battle-fields to maintain the 
Union, and to give us the blessing of a united and prosperous 
country, such as we today are enjoying. The greater number 
of those that went forth served in the ranks, but some won 
distinction as officers, on whose record citizens of the town and 
in particular the Alumni of the Academy, can look with 
commendable pride. 

But we should not on this occasion confine our retrospect 
to the male students of the Academy, but should give out 
meed of praise to a noble band of women who received their 
educational training in part or in whole within the old 
Academy. No one can do them full justice for the influence 
they have wielded as teachers, members of society, at home 
and elsewhere, as wives and mothers in their households, 
where in queenly majesty their gentle rule must be obeyed 
and to whom the town has been and is now greatly indebted. 
On the roll of educators they stand on the mountain height 
to survey the field from the dawn of intelligence of youth to 
point the way to maturity, and wielding a righteous influence, 
which all know from experience but which we often fail to 
acknowledge and appreciate, or measure to its full extent. 

All honor to those women whose influence in the town has 



15 

helped to make it the intelligent community it is recognized 
to be, and who reflect the good influence of their Academy 
teaching, not only in themselves but in their offspring. 

No one could have had a term's teaching in the old Academy 
without its influence being exerted to make his life higher 
and nobler than otherwise it would have been. 

The blessings enumerated which the people of Blue Hill 
enjoy, sprang from forethought and wisdom of the town's 
founders, whom, upon this centennial occasion, all should 
gratefully remember and loyally honor. 

Moses taught the children of Israel not to forget the hand 
that delivered them from Egyptian bondage, but to remember 
his words : " Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your 
heart and in your soul, bind them for a sign upon your hand 
that they may be a frontlet between your eyes. Teach them 
to the children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine 
house, when thou walkest by day, when thou liest down and 
when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the 
doorposts of thine house and upon thy gates ; that your days 
may be multiplied and the days of our children in the land 
which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the 
days of heaven upon earth." 

The people of Blue Hill and their children may not realize 
it to be "as a heaven upon earth," but the nearer they 
approach to the ideals of the fathers and founders of the 
town, the happier it will be for all. 

May the members of the Blue Hill Academy Alumni 
Association and their friends emulate the piety, virtue and 
honor of the founders of the town and its Academy, maintain 
the standard of education and devotion to civic duties they 
set up, sustain and support the old Academy and the new in 
their union, so that upon the bicentennial celebration their 
names shall be held in lasting remembrance with those we 
this day commemorate. 



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